Tawfik Ben Ahmed Chaovali

Tawfik Ben Ahmed Chaovali (* 1960 in Beirut ) is a prisoner of Lebanese origin imprisoned in Austria .

Tawfik Ben Ahmed Chaovali grew up in the Shatila refugee camp (Šātīlā) and became a member of the PLO in 1975 . His father died in an Israeli air raid near Sidon . In the summer of 1982 he fled to Tunisia after the Israeli intervention in the Lebanese civil war , shortly before the Sabra and Shatila massacres .

At the end of 1983 he returned to Lebanon, where he said he joined the Fatah splinter group under Abu Nidal . From Syria he entered Austria on December 22, 1985 with forged passports via Hungary and five days later he carried out a terrorist attack with two accomplices at Vienna International Airport . The aim of the men is said to have been to hijack an Israeli El Al machine, but the attackers were already involved in a wild exchange of fire at the flight counters by Austrian police officers and Israeli security guards and had to flee. Two Austrians and one Israeli were killed in the shooting and around 40 other people were injured.

The three perpetrators were finally caught by the police after a short escape and overwhelmed after an exchange of fire. Chaovali was shot in the stomach and was treated with one of his accomplices at the Vienna General Hospital, while the third perpetrator died of his injuries at the place of arrest. On May 21, 1987, Chaovali was found guilty of two murders, twelve attempted murders and offenses under the Gun Act and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In May 1995 Chaovali was able to escape from the Garsten prison through the skylights of the prison joinery , but was arrested again around two hours later in the basement of a residential building in Steyr . He was then transferred to the Graz-Karlau prison, where he tried to escape again in November 1996 with Adolf Schandl and the convicted murderer Peter G. During a joint visit to the establishment's business, Chaovali had overpowered two security guards with a stabbing weapon and, together with his accomplices, took three female employees hostage. Chaovali then tied home-made bottle bombs around the women’s bodies. He had stolen the nitro thinner required for this from the prison workshop. Chaovali and his accomplices asked for a ransom and a helicopter, but were overwhelmed by the Cobra Task Force after around nine hours of negotiations . In December 1997 Chaovali was sentenced to an additional 19 years in prison for his involvement in extortionate kidnapping, aggravated coercion and aggravated assault.

In September 2016 Chaovali was convicted of resisting state violence to four months in prison after pleading as IS issued -member and Guard officials had threatened. An application for parole and emigration to Jordan, which had been submitted by his half-brother, was then rejected.

literature

• In the crosshairs: Austria and Middle East terrorism 1973 to 1985 , Thomas Riegler, University of Vienna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.arbeiter-zeitung.at/cgi-bin/archiv/flash.pl?seite=19851231_A02;html=1 No suicide squad: Terrorists wanted to take the Israeli tourists hostage, AZ from December 31, 1985, p . 3/4
2. ↑ http://www.arbeiter-zeitung.at/cgi-bin/archiv/flash.pl?year=1987&month=5&day=22&page=10&html=1 Life imprisonment for the terrorists, AZ of May 22, 1987, p. 10
3. ↑ http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/heftige-diskussion-um-faehigkeit-der-sicherheitskraefte-oesterreich--pannen-und-skandale-bei-der-polizei,10810590,8957084.html Austria: Pannen and Police Scandals, Berliner Zeitung (May 20, 1995)
4. ↑ http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XX/J/J_02107/fname_119650.pdf Inquiry to the Federal Minister of Justice regarding the consequences of incidents in the Austrian penal institutions, Parlament.gv
5. ↑ http://www.nachrichten.at/oberoesterreich/steyr/Terrorist-Chaovali-wird-nach-31-Jahren-in-Haft-bleiben;art68,2199527 Terrorist Chaovali will remain in prison after 31 years