Austria: Suspect Arrested In Poisoning of 5 People At Bar

Police in Vienna arrested a man suspected of slipping drugs into drinks at a crowded bar Sunday, causing five people to collapse. Authorities said all five victims were hospitalized in life-threatening condition.

Investigators said they were still trying to determine a motive for the attack, which happened on a sunny afternoon at a small bar packed with up to 50 people enjoying an “after hours” party.

[...]

She said officers later took the unidentified suspect into custody after witnesses said they had seen a man offering the victims drinks.

Investigators said it was unclear exactly what substance had been added to the drinks, but that it appeared to be some kind of narcotic. Seper said the victims drank freely, apparently unaware that anything was amiss.

IndyStar.com | AP National | The Indianapolis Star.

Austrian Al-Qaeda Cell Watched For 3 years

he Austrian public prosecutor’s office has reportedly been investigating an Austrian cell of worldwide terror network Al-Qaeda for three years.

The magazine News will have a report about that in its edition that goes on sale tomorrow (Thurs) based on documents allegedly in the possession of the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT).

The magazine claims US officials informed their Austrian counterparts at the end of 2005 that Austrian citizen Abdulrahmen H., born in Mödling, Lower Austria in 1983, and four others had trained as para-militaries at an Al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan from August to October 2005.

News said Abdulrahmen, the head of the Austrian Al-Qaeda cell, had been killed along the Afghan-Pakistani border and another cell member had died in Afghanistan. The magazine added three other cell members were abroad, one in prison in Tunisia.

News also reported BVT investigators had questioned a former Al-Qaeda member in October 2007 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina about the training of Austrian cell members at Al-Qaeda camps.

The magazine added that, according to the charge against German terror suspect Aleem Nasir, Abdulrahman H. had trained at explosives expert Nasir’s “Mir Ali” camp in Pakistan.

Source