Muslim moves to Austria, becomes Sharia judge, family gets $258,000 in welfare benefits

Here is a fine illustration of the suicidal insanity of modern Europe.

“Graz: Terrorist leader (50) flees trial – posts videos from Syria,” translated from “Graz: Terroristenführer (50) flüchtet vor Prozess – postet Videos aus Syrien,” Exxpress, February 7, 2025 (thanks to Medforth):

Muhannad Z. (50) preferred not to face the prosecutor’s terrorism accusations at the Graz Regional Criminal Court. When the Higher Regional Court released him from custody, he took the opportunity and fled back to Syria, his country of origin, which he had left ten years ago – allegedly because of political persecution. At least, he was granted asylum on this basis in 2016. But now he seems to feel safer there than in Austria.

After a two-and-a-half-year break, Muhannad Z. is very active again on his Facebook page. Since the end of January, he has been posting videos a lot, for example from the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

In his most recent appearance on February 5, he told his followers while sitting in a car: Insulting Allah must definitely be made a criminal offense, and Syria needs a constitutional amendment. He had already spoken about this in a Russian-speaking mosque.

Because society is not guided by Sharia and such laws are lacking, “Bilad al-Sham” is doing so badly. Bilad al-Sham was the name of Syria when it was a province of the caliphate.

The jihadist career of the suspected terrorist leader began twelve years ago. According to the indictment, he fought from 2013 to 2014 as commander of the Lion Brigade in Al-Mayadin, a city in eastern Syria that became a retreat for the terrorist militia Islamic State during the war. The Lion Brigade had close ties to the Islamic State, reports the German Islam and terrorism expert Guido Steinberg. Muhannad later joined the terrorist organization al-Nusra. For such radical Islamist fighters, the war in Syria is “part of a larger conflict that does not end with the fall of Assad,” says Steinberg.

However, Muhannad Z. is said to have never fought with a weapon, his defense attorney later explained in Graz. “I can’t remember shooting a weapon,” the accused claimed evasively in court.

Muhannad came to Graz in 2015 with the wave of refugees. According to current knowledge, he preached shortly afterwards, now as an asylum seeker, in two mosques, namely in the Syrian youth club and in a radical Chechen mosque. (Perhaps that was the Russian-speaking mosque he spoke of in his most recent video?)

Muhannad Z. also set up a parallel Islamic justice system in his apartment: he acted as a Sharia judge who applied Islamic law in disputes.

Muhannad’s stay in Austria has been costly for taxpayers since then. His wife and seven children followed the suspected terrorist from Syria. It is estimated that the family of eight has received around 250,000 euros in social benefits since then.

At the same time, he traded in halal chicken meat, i.e. “fresh meat – 100% slaughtered using Islamic methods,” as can be read on the company’s Facebook page. While 90 percent of chickens in Europe are slaughtered “with electric shock and machine,” the situation is completely different with Alhelal chickens, according to a Facebook post: The chickens are slaughtered “in accordance with Islamic principles,” “with human labor and without electric shock.”

A video is shown in which chickens that are still alive are beheaded. “The chickens are still alive. Watch how they move in the video,” says a voice.

The authorities later get wind of Muhannad’s Islamist activities in Graz and Syria. However, the Graz Higher Regional Court remarkably released the suspect twice, which ultimately enabled him to escape.
Initially, the suspect’s pre-trial detention was lifted on the 11th of March 2023 ‘because the Higher Regional Court did not consider any grounds for detention to be fulfilled’, Stefan Koller from the Higher Regional Court of Graz told exxpress. The public prosecutor’s office discontinued the investigation for the time being. However, an anonymous and authoritative witness was mistakenly named in the decision of the Higher Regional Court, as reported by the newspaper Krone.

Charges of terrorist association and criminal organisation were finally brought last year. At the trial on the 11th December 2024, the witness finally appeared in court, intimidated. It turned out that he had been threatened with death by the defendant’s family in the meantime. ‘I don’t want to say anything, I’m being threatened,’ he said. Family members of Muhannad Z. had ‘visited’ him at home, a Facebook message was presented to the court: ‘You are playing with your blood and life,’ it said. It also states that Muhannad Z. would cut the witness in half.

The public prosecutor had had enough and requested the immediate arrest of the defendant on the grounds of risk of concealment. Three days later, however, the suspect was released from custody by the Higher Regional Court following an appeal by his defence lawyer.

The trial was due to continue on Thursday, but the suspect has since returned to Syria with his family, where he plans to open a pharmacy, according to his defence lawyer.

Stefan Koller from Graz Higher Regional Court reports on the release from custody in mid-December: ‘The reasons for this were the lack of an urgent suspicion regarding the offence of coercion according to Article 12, second case, 105 Para. 1 of the Criminal Code and the absence of a reason for detention based on the risk of concealment’.

The public prosecutor’s office has now applied for a European arrest warrant. Muhannad Z. can no longer move freely in Europe.