@William Weber is a long-term member of LowEndTalk who could probably sell their life story to Netflix at this point.
Our last article surrounding his child porn Tor exit node case received quite a response around the internet.
This time, unfortunately, we have more poor news surrounding William Weber…
According to a local news outlet based in Rijeka, Croatia, Croatian authorities have arrested William for “the crime of terrorism.”
Here’s the English translation of the arrest:
Austrian William Weber (31) was placed in the Rijeka prison this afternoon on suspicion of having committed the crime of terrorism.The investigating judge of the Rijeka County Court sentenced him to pretrial detention because of the danger that, if he remains free, he could repeat the crime.
Weber is a foreigner on temporary residence in Croatia, with an address in Kastav. It is suspected that last weekend he acted with the intention of seriously intimidating the population, so on Friday night on the social network, the Discord application, he published messages to a large number of people seriously threatening to kill them, stating that he owned an automatic firearm and that they will “shoot randomly at Muslims”. He wrote that he needed help, and that 17 people from his family died in the war in Gaza. He also stated that he had a gun and that he was thinking of killing himself. At the same time, he published two photos with automatic weapons – machine guns.
The Austrian is suspected of possessing the ammunition and replica firearms found in the house in Kastav where he lives. During the search, a dozen bullets, military ammunition, and 15 pieces of gas ammunition were found. In addition, two pistols and three automatic “Airsoft” rifles, replica firearms, which are normally used in military simulation sports and shoot hard plastic pellets, were found.
Weber was brought to court after being questioned by the Rijeka County State Attorney’s Office, where he chose to remain silent.According to information obtained by Burin, it was established that his claims that members of his family were killed in Gaza do not correspond to the truth.
According to what has been determined so far, the Austrian has been living in Croatia for at least two years. The investigators also obtained medical documentation from which it is evident that he is being treated for impaired mental health. He has not been convicted so far.
For the crime of terrorism with which he is charged, he faces a sentence of one to eight years in prison.
Is This Credible?
Admittedly, this does seem a bit strange to me because I just talked to William a bit over a week ago:
He mentions he went to “Israel for the war in Gaza” on November 3rd. I didn’t see his response and responded on November 8th. William is then allegedly arrested on November 11th in Croatia.
Yesterday at midnight I attempted to contact him to no reply by 10 AM today, which is unusual for William. His status was also always more active than “last seen within a month.”
I also tried to call directly to Rijeka Prison (+385 51 211 777) to no avail (it’s the weekend and night in Croatia).
What I’m saying here is it’s currently very difficult to confirm this information, but Burin is a credible local source. I do believe this article is accurate.
However, one thing the article gets wrong, according to William, is that he’s Austrian. He told me he was born in Israel, but grew up in Austria (and has an Austrian passport).
What Does This Mean for William?
William is acquainted with any legal system enough that he chose to remain silent; which is the right thing to do anytime you get arrested.
Never for one second think the police, or any interrogators, are going to “help you out” or “lesson the charges”–you’re just making their job easier so that they can go eat donuts faster.
At least make the police actually do their job and find strong evidence to convict you (instead of you convicting yourself).
However, in this case, William likely already convicted himself. Platforms like Discord, Snapchat, and beyond will gladly comply with authorities.
If the allegations are true and he was, in fact, sending threats that would create a genuine fear of life; Discord will gladly hand over all according logs, IPs, etc.
Meaning Croatian authorities wouldn’t need any kind of confession or statement from him to begin with because they would actually have an existing case.
Regardless…
Obviously, You Shouldn’t Be Saying You’re Going To Kill Anyone
Even in the mass shooting capital of the world, the United States, with the world’s most relaxed gun laws…
If you post a picture of a gun and say you’re going to kill someone; you’ll have the police knocking on your door within 30 minutes.
The police don’t even need a warrant to request your location from your favorite social media platform if there’s reason to believe there’s an immediate danger of harm to yourself or anyone else.
Plus, you don’t even need to intend to actually harm someone. Most first world countries have laws surrounding speech that place citizens in legitimate fear for their life.
For example, in the United States, you’ll have state legislation regarding intimidating/threatening speech, and then if you send those threats or messages to an individual in another state, the feds will then pick it up for interstate communications.
It’s also important to note it’s not a defense to say “I wasn’t actually going to follow through on the threats” because the crime is the fear and emotional distress already caused by the threat, legitimate or false.
All in All
It’s a sad situation where I believe William was more likely to hurt himself than anyone else, but spending years in a concrete box won’t improve anyone’s mental health.
That said, you can’t go around saying you’re going to shoot Muslims, etc…
This situation is still developing, and my goal is to try to get in contact with William to get his side of the story.
If that’s successful, I’ll likely follow up on this story. Stay tuned.
Update 11/16/23: I have yet to be able to get in contact with William (still trying) but this arrest is indeed legitimate.
- Path.net Seeks Discord Subpoena for Ex-Employee and Competitor’s Data - December 12, 2023
- Interviewing Christopher Cantwell - December 6, 2023
- Uptime Kuma: Your New Favorite Self-Hosted Uptime Monitoring Tool - December 1, 2023
Why would you even gatekeep his Telegram? It’s in his ASN whois. Other than that, it’s an absolutely fascinating article. I’m wondering who hates him so much that they regularly search his Discord messages and then report them to the police.
Thanks!
I wasn’t intentionally gatekeeping his Telegram. He gave it to me years back via PMs, so, didn’t feel comfortable publishing it without his consent.
I would assume someone he allegedly sent the threats to probably started the case. The Croatian authorities would then go back and request confirmation from Discord themselves, who comply with legitimate requests.
William is the owner of BASEHOST SHPK? Website seems down.
You was able to reach him in jail?
Bail was refused…
He is held in custody at the prison of Rijeka, i can confirm that. Looks like his business was closed down as well.
let him rot in a Croatian hell. nutjobs like him belong behind bars.
Any updates?
FYI: https://status.6project.org/
Any updates?