It was supposed to be a coup in the fight against “political Islam” when the Austrian security authorities carried out a large-scale search operation across the country in November 2020 against 70 alleged members and institutions of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now the Graz Higher Regional Court has granted the complaints of nine victims of the so-called "Operation Luxor" and declared the house searches illegal.

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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A spokeswoman said the measures in question did not comply with the law and that the suspicions prior to the house searches in these nine cases were not sufficient for the raid.

There have been other complaints about the seizure of evidence and the freezing of accounts.

This has not yet been decided.

"Conjectures and speculations"

According to a report by the newspaper Die Presse on Tuesday, the decision said that unlike the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS), the results of the investigation did not support the suspicion that the Muslim Brotherhood was a “globally homogeneous group” with the characteristics of a terrorist organization be. It is therefore wrong and inadmissible to assume that every person who is attributed to this movement is a terrorist. Even in the specific individual cases, there is no substantiated suspicion. The court reprimanded the investigators “speculation and speculation” when formulating their suspicions.

"Operation Luxor" had been prepared for a long time. It was also not a reaction to the terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020 by a supporter of IS. When asked how the court decision affected the "Luxor" investigation, the Austrian Ministry of the Interior referred to a report by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, according to which the Muslim Brotherhood wants to establish a political and social system on the basis of the Koran and Sunna.

A spokesman said: “The decisive action against any grouping that calls into question basic democratic principles, such as the right to equal treatment or freedom of expression, is part of the Austrian security strategy. The protection of the democratic principle is therefore the top priority of the Austrian state security authorities. "