Austrian rapper accused of broadcasting neo-Nazi songs is arrested

Suspect’s music was played during a livestreamed antisemitic attack in 2019

Police in Austria raided the man’s home (APA/AFP via Getty Images)

An Austrian rapper has been arrested for allegedly making and broadcasting neo-Nazi songs.

The man, who uses the pseudonym Mr Bond and has posted on neo-Nazi forums since 2016, has been on the radar of Austrian intelligence officers for months, The Guardian reports.

On Tuesday (2 February), an interior ministry statement announced that the suspect had been arrested, accused of producing and broadcasting Nazi ideas and incitement to hatred after his home was searched.

Police found and seized a mixing desk, hard disks, weapons, a Third Reich-era military flag and other Nazi paraphernalia.

“The words of his songs glorify National Socialism and are antisemitic, racist and xenophobic,” the interior ministry statement said.

One of Mr Bond’s songs was played during a livestreamed antisemitic attack in the German city of Halle in October 2019, during which a man shot dead two people after a failed attempt to storm a synagogue during Yom Kippur.

When he appeared on trial last year for the terrorist incident, attacker Stephan Balliet said he had picked the music as a “commentary on the act”.

Balliet was jailed for life by a German court in December.