Shove on escalator

After acquittal: Lugner’s threatener committed new crimes

Simone Lugner and lawyer Florian Höllwarth. The defendant did not attend his trial in June 2025.(Bild: Sophie Pratschner)

Last June, the Turkish man who threatened to kill Simone Lugner, the widow of a building contractor, in a Vienna shopping center was acquitted, to the surprise of many. According to information obtained by the "Krone" newspaper, the defendant is alleged to have injured three random victims in disturbing incidents shortly thereafter. The case is being heard today.

The Vienna public prosecutor's office cites the following attacks: On October 3, the man allegedly knocked a passerby who had pointed something out to him to the ground and then struck the victim on the back of the head with a wooden slat. According to the indictment, two weeks later, further attacks on random victims followed, this time at the Zieglergasse subway station in the 7th district. The attacker allegedly stabbed a passerby in the left thigh with a kitchen knife with an eight-centimeter blade. On the same day, according to the public prosecutor's office, he pushed a woman standing on the escalator in the head, causing her to fall backwards onto the escalator.

Victims had guardian angels
Three terrible attacks in the federal capital, which miraculously did not result in serious injuries. However, each one could have been fatal. 

But who is this insidious attacker? He is certainly no stranger to the justice system. The 30-year-old Turkish man with roots in Tyrol was acquitted of dangerous threats in Vienna's Landl court just a few months ago. The case caused a stir at the time – the victim he had threatened with death was Simone Lugner, the widow of builder Richard Lugner. 

Simone Lugner and lawyer Florian Höllwarth. The defendant did not attend his trial in June 2025.(Bild: Sophie Pratschner)

Didn't show up for trial, skipped out on expert witness
"I'll kill you all!" the man shouted in December 2024 in Vienna's Gasometer, pounding his fists against a glass wall – while Simone was a guest on a radio show. He then threw chairs from a nearby restaurant through the shopping center. The defendant failed to appear at the criminal trial on both scheduled trial days, nor did he appear before the psychiatrist, and a summons was also unsuccessful.

The judge heard the case in the man's absence and concluded: "This is not a dangerous threat." Legally, the offense would require a weapon or gesture to illustrate what was said. "He said that and ran away," Mr. Rat summarized. He was acquitted. "The behavior now being charged confirms the great astonishment at the acquittal at the time," said Lugner's lawyer Florian Höllwarth, commenting on the Turkish man's recent alleged crimes.  

The behavior now being charged confirms the great astonishment at the acquittal at the time.

Lugners Anwalt Florian Höllwarth

Bild: Eva Manhart

Now he faces institutionalization
This morning, the man cannot avoid his current trial. However, he will not take his place before the jury as the defendant, but as the person concerned. This is because a psychiatric evaluation, which has finally been carried out in the meantime, revealed that the man suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. He faces indefinite placement in a forensic therapeutic center.