Austrian officials have established a connection between a regional far-right group and the man charged with murdering dozens of people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Wednesday.
Led by far-right activist Martin Sellner, the Identitarian Movement of Austria risks being dissolved after it emerged that the group received a sizable donation in early 2018 from the suspected mass-shooter facing charges for the March 15 massacre.
“We are now investigating whether we have a terrorist organization here,” Mr. Kurz said at a press conference, Agence France-Presse reported. “If it is indeed the case that it is a terrorist organization, then of course there will be consequences for the organization.”
“Radicalism of any kind must be eradicated, and all legal options should be taken,” Mr. Kurz added, according to the outlet.
Hansjoerg Bacher, a spokesman for Austrian prosecutors, said that Mr. Sellner received 1,500 euros ($1,690) early last year from a donor with the same name as the man facing charges for the Christchurch shootings, Reuters reported.
Discussing the donation Wednesday, Mr. Kurz said authorities “can now confirm that there was financial support and so a link between the New Zealand attacker and the Identitarian Movement in Austria,” the report said.
Mr. Sellner, 30, said earlier in the week that his residence was raided Monday in connection with an investigation into the Christchurch attacks.
“I’m not a member of a terrorist organization,” he said in a video uploaded to YouTube afterward. “I have nothing to do with this man, other than that I passively received a donation from him.”
Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, has been charged in connection with the murder of 50 people massacred this month in Christchurch. He is believed to have written a manifesto uploaded to the internet, prior to the shootings, rife with racist and ethno-nationalist rhetoric not unlike those espoused by members of Mr. Sellner’s group.
Founded in 2012 “in order to preserve the country’s cultural heritage,” the Identitarian Movement of Austria touts itself on its website as the nation’s largest “patriotic” group with more than 600 supporters.
“We don’t hate immigrants. But we also don’t want to see the country change and end up minorities in our countries,” Mr. Sellner said previously.
Titled “The Great Replacement,” the manifesto said the rampage was waged to “directly reduce immigration rates to European lands by intimidating and physically removing the invaders themselves.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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