Stop the criminalisation of Dar al-Janub
Demand MEP’s intervention in the case of Dar al-Janub to stop their political persecution
Dar al-Janub, a Vienna-based anti-colonial and anti-racist organisation founded in 2003, is under an unprecedented state-led attack in Austria. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, who belongs to the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), oversaw a series of violent raids between February and October 2025 which targeted the homes of members and former members of Dar al-Janub as well as its Vienna offices. Austria's special police unit, WEGA (Vienna Special Intervention Unit) carried out these raids on family homes, often with children present. WEGA seized laptops, phones, personal diaries, archival materials and books. Prior to these actions, members were monitored through covert surveillance, including phone tapping, physical tracking, and vehicle monitoring all without evidence of wrongdoing.
The repression stems from a weak and politically motivated report by the Dokustelle Politischer Islam, a state-funded institution established to surveil and monitor Muslims in Austria. Using this report, the ÖVP filed a political complaint, and the Interior Minister launched a sweeping investigation against Dar al-Janub, who has educated the Austrian public about conditions in Palestine for over twenty years. This unjust investigation seeks to frame the organisation’s humanitarian work, educational activities, and social media posts as "support for terrorism." Prosecuting that work under terrorism law abuses the rule of law and contradicts Austria's own condemnation of Israel's violations of international law.
This pattern is alarmingly similar to Operation Luxor in 2020, when over seventy Muslim families and organisations in Austria were subjected to coordinated raids under terrorism allegations. Those proceedings ultimately collapsed due to a lack of evidence, with courts finding that the measures taken were unlawful, disproportionate and unsupported by substantiated criminal suspicion. The present case against Dar al-Janub follows the same trajectory: expansive security claims, invasive policing, and yet no demonstrable evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
This case is part of a wider European pattern where states criminalise pro-Palestine activism. Germany has banned Samidoun (pro-Palestinian prisoner advocacy network), France has targeted Urgence Palestine (pro-Palestinian activist collective), and the UK has proscribed Palestine Action (pro-Palestinian direct-action group). Under Karner’s leadership, Austria now follows this authoritarian approach.
The impact of the State’s crackdown on Dar al-Janub has been so great that the organisation was forced to dissolve due to the pressure and isolation manufactured by the government. However, its members still face the prospect of being prosecuted for their Palestine advocacy.
Join CAGE International in calling on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) committee MEPs, Diana Riba i Giner, Jaume Asens Llodrà, Pernando Barrena Arza, Estrella Galán and Isabel Serra Sánchez to use their positions to enact the following:
- Submit Official Parliamentary questions to the Commission on whether the Austrian police's actions breach EU fundamental-rights frameworks as it is legally required to answer.
- Make public and press statements: issue press releases and publicly condemn this policing practice and human-rights regression in Austria via media avenues
- As LIBE members, raise the case in committee debates to push for stronger EU-wide police-oversight standards
Call to Action:
Send the template letter to the LIBE committee MEPs and demand that they amplify the case of Dar al-Janub.
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Dear MEPs Diana Riba i Giner, Jaume Asens Llodrà, Pernando Barrena Arza, Estrella Galán, Isabel Serra Sánchez,
I am writing to you in your capacities as LIBE committee MEPs given that you have all advocated strongly for the Palestinian cause and critiqued abuses of the rule of law and fundamental freedoms. For these reasons, I believe you will take seriously the criminal investigation the Austrian public prosecutor's office is conducting against Dar al-Janub, a Vienna-based anti-colonial and anti-racist organisation operating openly since 2003.
Between February and October 2025, the WEGA special unit repeatedly raided the homes of members of Dar al-Janub, often in front of children, and the organisation's Vienna based offices. Devices, diaries, archives, and books were seized. Prior to these raids, members were placed under covert surveillance, including phone tapping and tracking, with no concrete evidence of criminal conduct.
The investigation appears to stem from a politically motivated report by the state-funded Dokustelle Politischer Islam and a complaint by the ÖVP, a governing-party partner. It is deeply troubling that a complaint from a governing party in Austria has led prosecutors to pursue legal action against an organisation for its humanitarian work, educational activities, and social media posts unjustly recasting them as "support for terrorism."
Austrian prosecutors have done this before. In November 2020, Operation Luxor raided over seventy Muslim individuals and organisations; the Higher Regional Court of Graz later found the raids unlawful and politically motivated, and declared the Dokustelle-linked expert witnesses Heiko Heinish and Nina Scholz biased. No one was held accountable and the Austrian state is seeking to do the same, yet again.
Dar al-Janub has informed the Austrian public about conditions in Palestine for over twenty years. Prosecuting that work under terrorism law abuses the rule of law and contradicts Austria's own condemnation of Israel's violations of international law.
The impact of the State’s crackdown on Dar al-Janub has been so great that the organisation was forced to dissolve due to the pressure and isolation manufactured by the government. However, its members still face the prospect of being prosecuted for their Palestine advocacy.
As LIBE committee MEPs, you can act on this. I ask that you do so by enacting the following actions:
- Submit Official Parliamentary questions to the Commission on whether the Austrian police's actions breach EU fundamental-rights frameworks as it is legally required to answer.
- Make public and press statements: issue press releases and publicly condemn this policing practice and human-rights regression in Austria via media avenues
- As LIBE members, raise the case in committee debates to push for stronger EU-wide police-oversight standards
I ask that you use these powers to press the Austrian Ministry of Justice on what safeguards prevent politically motivated prosecution and racism in its investigations, whether those safeguards were applied in this case, and what steps it will take if none exist. Without them, the failures of Operation Luxor will be repeated.
I await your response to this urgent matter.
Yours sincerely,
