The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
An espionage scandal rocks Austria, uncovering ‘Russian spying ops’ across Europe
AUSTRIA FACES its biggest espionage scandal in decades as the arrest of a former intelligence officer brings to light evidence of extensive Russian infiltration, lax official oversight and behavior worthy of a spy novel.
Egisto Ott was arrested March 29. The 86-page arrest warrant, obtained by AP alleges among other things that he handed over cellphone data of former highranking Austrian officials to Russian intelligence, helped plot a burglary at a prominent journalist’s apartment, and wrote up
“suggestions for improvement” after a Russian-ordered killing in Germany.
Ott is suspected of having provided sensitive information to Jan Marsalek, a fugitive fellow Austrian wanted on suspicion of fraud since the collapse in 2020 of German payment company Wirecard, where he was the chief operating officer. The warrant says chat messages provided by British authorities link Marsalek directly to the Russian intelligence agency FSB.
German and Austrian media have reported that Marsalek is believed to have had connections to Russian intelligence since at least 2014. He is now thought to be in Russia.
Ott, a former police officer, was an intelligence officer in Turkey and Italy from 2001 to 2012 before moving on to manage undercover agents at Austria’s now-defunct domestic intelligence agency, the BVT.
He was suspended from the BVT in 2017 when allegations emerged for the first time that he could be spying for Russia, but reassigned the following year to work for the Austrian police academy. In 2021, he was suspended pending further investigation into his alleged ties to Russia and taken into custody. Authorities concluded the evidence was too thin and released him about four weeks later.
At the BVT, Ott served under
Martin Weiss, the former chief of Austrian intelligence operations. According to the arrest warrant, Marsalek said in a text message that he helped “evacuate” Weiss to Dubai.
Ott’s lawyer declined to comment, saying he had only recently taken over Ott’s defense. Ott has previously denied the espionage allegations and any wrongdoing.
Marsalek, 44, appears to be “the spider in the web” who is “pulling the strings,” Riegler said.
Between 2017 and 2021, the Austrian warrant says, Ott collected sensitive information on people of interest to Russia “for the purpose of transmission to Jan Marsalek and to unknown representatives of Russian authorities” by conducting numerous searches in national police databases and making requests to other European police officers, including in Italy and Britain.
Ott also allegedly requested data from the information system of europe’s border-free travel area to ascertain whether suspected Russian operatives were wanted or subject to travel restrictions.
The warrant contains a long list of people who were spied on, including Russian dissidents, businesspeople and a former officer who had quit the FSB.
Ott also allegedly got hold of the cellphones of three former high-ranking Austrian Interior Ministry officials, including a former minister’s chief of staff, when they were supposed to be repaired by BVT IT specialists after falling into the water during a boat excursion on the Danube in 2017.
Ott remains in custody awaiting a decision on whether he will be officially charged.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has convened a meeting of the National Security Council for Tuesday and said the country needs to boost its security to thwart Russian infiltration. His justice minister said she plans to tighten the country’s laws on espionage, which currently is explicitly banned if directed against Austria itself but not if it targets other countries or the many international organizations Vienna hosts.