(Illustrative photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Austria’s interior ministry refused entry to a suspected ISIS fighter from Georgia who required emergency surgery, the Inquirer.net reported.
The 19-year-old fighter, identified only as Temirlan, was shot in the head in a special forces operation in Georgia and is in a coma. The fighter is thought to be connected to the Chechen jihadi kingpin Akmad Chatayev, who was wanted for the triple bombing and shooting attack on Ataturk Airport in Turkey.
Forty-six people were killed in the June attack in Istanbul with more than 230 injured. Chatayev himself was killed in November in a counter-terror operation in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital.
Citing security concerns as the primary reason, the ministry also said the fighter’s entrance would increase the risk of a possible rescue or a blackmail attempt.
Austria has a large Chechen community and has one of the highest numbers of foreign fighters per capita.
The interior ministry is run by the far-right Freedom Party which joined with the conservative People’s Party to make a coalition government late last year. The party vowed to concentrate on national security as well as stop illegal immigration.
