Kavac Clan in court: encrypted mobile phones incriminate defendant
A 57-year-old Montenegrin is on trial at Vienna Regional Court on charges of involvement in an extortion in 2020. He is incriminated by data from encrypted Sky-ECC mobile phones.
Explosives detection dog in courtroom, selfies as evidence
Officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office checked the identification of visitors on the day of the hearing; uniformed units from Vienna Police and the Court Guard created congestion in the hallway. An explosives detection dog searched courtroom 302 of the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters before proceedings began.
As derStandard.at reports, the case concerns the so-called Kavac Clan – a criminal organisation operating across Europe from Montenegro – and encrypted Sky-ECC mobile phones. In the specific case, the 57-year-old defendant R. is accused of acting as a lookout during an extortion in Vienna on 14 March 2020.
Black plastic sheeting, handsaws, bound victims
According to prosecutor M., the criminal organisation lured a tobacco smuggler under the pretext of a business meeting into a rented flat at Rudolfsplatz. The aim was to threaten the man and extort money from his Croatian business partner. The plan faltered because the business partner accompanied the smuggler. According to evaluated chat logs, there was a plan to dig two graves in the Vienna countryside; eventually a different Croatian was extorted.
That no legitimate business meeting was to take place became immediately clear to the victims upon entering the flat: the rooms were lined with black nylon sheeting, handsaws lay ready, the victims were threatened with weapons, bound and beaten. The defendant is said to have taken responsibility for so-called external security together with an accomplice in the nearby Rudolfspark.
Sky-ECC data as central evidence
The prosecutor bases the defendant's involvement on data from two Sky-ECC devices. These mobile phones were considered encrypted and wiretap-proof until French police gained access to the corresponding servers. The defendant's nickname and birth name both appeared in the chat logs surrounding the extortion.
One of the mobile phones, which investigators from the Achilles working group of the Federal Criminal Police Office assigned to R., contained several selfies, voice messages – identified by interpreters as his voice – and his brother's phone number. In another message there is an oath on the grave of a man who happens to have the same name as the defendant's father.
"I am completely innocent"
"I never had Sky, I have nothing to do with the incident," the defendant said through an interpreter, towering over the Court Guard officers by half a head. "I am completely innocent," he declared to the panel of lay judges. His defence counsel argued that it could be a case of identity theft. R. also denied ever having worked for the clan; his multi-year prison sentences in France and Belgium had been imposed for independent offences.
The presiding judge countered the defendant: "Why should this unknown person suddenly send your selfies in chats?" – "I don't know how they got there," R. replied. He pointed to a picture showing a hand with a pistol and a clearly visible tattoo – a tattoo he did not have, as he demonstrated by rolling up his sleeves.
Roast pork dinner and name change
Another picture shows the defendant in an attic flat eating roast pork in the company of other men. "I don't know who they are. I sit at tables with people millions of times," he denied knowing those pictured. That they were participants in the extortion, he described as coincidence.
When asked why he had changed his birth name, R. explained: "In 2010 I had an entry ban in the Schengen area. I changed my name completely legally so I could travel through Europe." The presiding judge added dryly that it was known this was very easily possible in some Balkan states.
When a lay judge asked where he had been on 14 March 2020, R. replied: "I was certainly in Austria, but I don't remember where." The lay judge put it to him that given the long preparation time he could have provided counter-evidence. "But I definitely was not there!" the defendant insisted.
Hearing to continue next Friday
The prosecutor – as in an earlier proceeding – applied for a voice analysis expert report to clarify who is heard in the voice messages. No decision has yet been made on this application. The hearing will continue next Friday.
Source: derStandard.at