Austrian Far-Right Activist Raided over Possible Donation from New Zealand Shooting Suspect

Austrian authorities have searched the home of a prominent far-right activist as part of a probe into his ties to the alleged Christchurch mosque gunman, officials said on Tuesday.

Head of the white nationalist group Identitarian Movement of Austria, Martin Sellner, said on social media that police searched his apartment on Monday.

They seized electronic devices after Mr Sellner received a “disproportionately high donation” from a person named Tarrant — the same surname as the suspected Christchurch shooter.

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A spokesman for Graz prosecutors, Hansjoerg Bacher, said prosecutors had stumbled across the donation as part of an existing probe against Mr Sellner into possible financial offences.

“The purpose of the investigation is to examine links between Mr Sellner and the Christchurch attacker,” Mr Bacher said.

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Mr Bacher said the investigation against Mr Sellner is based on Austrian anti-terror laws.

“We need to determine whether there is a connection and if so, whether it’s criminally significant,” he said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he had spoken with the Minister of Justice Josef Moser about the raid, and all links to the alleged mass killer will be investigated.

“Every connection between the Christchurch suspect and members of Identitarians in Austria must be cleared completely and ruthlessly,” he tweeted.

“It is important that the independent judiciary, with all necessary means and resources, conducts its investigations together with the security authorities and can lift these networks.

“It needs full education about all extremist machinations.”

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“I had nothing to do with the attack,” Mr Sellner said in a video statement posted on YouTube, adding that he would donate the money to a charitable organisation.

He suggested the reason for the donation might have been to provoke repressive measures against “patriots”.

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