Some 400 law enforcement officers across Austria and Slovakia have detained 15 people suspected of beating and humiliating queer people after using fake identities to lure them with promises of sex.
Police, criminal investigators and a special police tactical unit carried out the operation on Friday morning. A total of 23 house searches were conducted.
Twelve men and three women between the ages of 14 and 26 were detained on suspicion of hate crimes against at least 17 homosexual people.
The ring of alleged abusers used made-up identities to trick mostly gay men into meeting them.
However, instead of the promised sexual encounter, the victims were met with four to eight masked men who allegedly robbed, beat and humiliated them, posting videos of their abuse on internal groups and internet forums.
“We have recorded cases of serious intentional bodily harm, and in one case even an attempted murder,” said Michael Lohnegger, head of the Styrian State Office of Criminal Investigation in southern Austria.
He said that the group’s aim “is to remove pedophiles from society.”
Police reported they found weapons, drugs and Nazi memorabilia during the house raids.
The first cases of such crimes were reported in May and June last year.
Ann-Sophie Otte, chairwoman of HOSI Vienna, the oldest gay and lesbian organization in Austria, said the rise of the far-right has caused a recent spike in violence against LGBT people.
“In recent years, right-wing and far-right circles have been increasingly spreading the nasty old lie that LGBTIQ people are a threat to children... Those who demonize the education and visibility of minorities with fighting terms such as ‘early sexualization’ contribute to precisely this atmosphere in which extremists feel justified in committing such crimes,” she said.
Austrian voters last September handed a first-ever general election victory to the far-right Freedom Party, amid rising support for the hard-right across Europe.
