Cops Say Arrested Fiance Has Already Been Flown Back To Turkey
Blonde Gundula B., 40, had to be treated in hospital for shock after officials ruined her plan to marry Hamza, 27, who is reportedly Kurdish and who has now been deported back to Turkey.
His lawyer Georg Klammer has slammed the deportation on Tuesday evening as “unlawful”, telling Austrian media that the “police did not have the right to prevent the marriage” despite denying his asylum application 10 days before.
Footage of the interrupted wedding shows the Austrian authorities detaining Hamza while his heartbroken bride defiantly tells them: “I have the right to get married.”
Now Klammer is aiming to get the 27-year-old married in Turkey and reunited with his bride in Austria after applying for family reunification.
Local media in Austria have reported that Hamza could be back in the Alpine country in two to three months if he is not drafted into the Turkish military.
Gundula slammed the arrest saying: “I can only emphasise again that this action was sadistic. We walked in, the ceremony began.
“My friend had already turned on the music, the registrar laughed and was happy. Then she left for a moment because she had apparently forgotten something and then suddenly came back with a lot of police.”
But the Austrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) has said that they had attempted to arrest Hamza 13 times before and that he had evaded capture by going into hiding, according to local media.
Outrage As Cops Arrest Man During His Wedding In Order To Deport Him
The BFA said that they had acted lawfully, adding. “The BFA was aware of the marriage date of the person mentioned, and therefore, the only option chosen was to carry out the arrest as part of the marriage in January 2024.”
They also said that the groom “would not be at risk of persecution within the meaning of the Geneva Refugee Convention” if he returned to his Turkish homeland.
Hamza was arrested during the ceremony at Vosendorf Castle on the outskirts of the Austrian capital. Vienna, with Austrian immigration police saying it was a sham so that Hamza could obtain residency status in Austria after his asylum request was denied 10 days ago.
Gundula, a German-born academic, has lived in Vienna for 17 years, complained via her lawyer that a “unique life event was devalued” and “trampled on”.
Lawyer Klemm said that a decision by the administrative court in 2018 deemed the practice unlawful.
He said: “This practice was common 20 years ago, but was then declared unlawful by the highest courts and has not been carried out since then.”
Gundula said through tears: “He’s such a sweet, sensitive man. This is all terrible.”
The couple reportedly met and fell in love a year and a half ago at their place of work. A bar owned by the groom’s uncle.