Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday said there was a financial link between the man who killed 50 people in mass shootings at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the far-right Identitarian Movement in Austria.
March 27, 2019 - Link between Christchurch attacker, Identitarian Movement: Austria's Kurz
A woman reacts at a make shift memorial outside the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand March 23, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su
Hansjoerg Bacher, spokesman for prosecutors in Graz, said Martin Sellner, head of the Identitarian Movement - which says it wants to preserve Europe’s identity - received 1,500 euros ($1,690) in early 2018 from a donor with the same name as the man charged with murder following the Christchurch attack.
“We can now confirm that there was financial support and so a link between the New Zealand attacker and the Identitarian Movement in Austria,” Kurz said.
Sellner published a video on YouTube in which he said he had received a donation from the man and that police had raided his house over the possible links to the Christchurch attacker.
In it, he said: “I’m not a member of a terrorist organization. I have nothing to do with this man, other than that I passively received a donation from him.”
Bacher said an investigation was underway about whether there were criminally relevant links between Sellner and the attacker. The Austrian Interior Ministry declined to comment.
Kurz said Austria was looking into dissolving the Identitarian Movement.
“Our position on this is very clear, no kind of extremism whatsoever - whether it’s radical Islamists or right-wing extremist fanatics - has any place in our society,” Kurz said.
On Tuesday, Kurz said on Twitter any connection between the Christchurch attacker and members of the Identitarian Movement in Austria needed to be fully clarified.
Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, of the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), said the FPO had nothing to do with the Identitarian Movement.
New Zealand police are investigating whether a man who died from a stab wound in a standoff on Wednesday had any connection with the March 15 shooting attack on two mosques in Christchurch, which killed 50 people.
New Zealand police probe if man who died in standoff linked to mosque attacks
FILE PHOTO - People visit a memorial site for victims of Friday's shooting, in front of the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
National police commissioner Mike Bush said Christchurch police found several firearms in a search of a local property late Tuesday evening.
At about 12.30 a.m. on Wednesday, they located a 54 year-old man sought in relation to the firearms in a stopped vehicle.
Police negotiators spoke with the man over a number of hours and officers approached the vehicle at around 3.40 a.m. Bush said the man was found in the car critically injured with what appeared to be a stab wound. A knife was located in the vehicle.
First aid was applied but the man died at the scene. No firearms were discovered inside the vehicle.
“A high priority investigation is underway to determine whether or not the deceased man posed a threat to the community. This will include further searches of Christchurch properties and interviews with family and associates,” Bush said.
“At this time there is no evidence to suggest this person had any involvement in the attacks of 15 March, however this forms an important part of the investigation.”
A suspected white supremacist has been charged with one count of murder over the Christchurch shootings and will appear in court on April 5.
