Austria brings criminal case against ex-official accused of spying for Russia
Vienna (Reuters) -Former Austrian Intelligence official Egisto OTT, on Friday, said that he was facing a criminal case accused of corruption and espionage for Russia by providing a encrypted laptop and leaking sensitive information for years.
OTT, who was currently working in the Federal Office for the protection of the Constitution and the Anti -Terrorism (BVT), the main internal intelligence agency of Austria, was arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of espionage.
OTT rejected all injustice. His lawyer refused to comment on Friday.
Vienna prosecutors, in a statement, Austria’s damage, bribery, abuse of the office and violation of official confidentiality, such as working or support for an intelligence agency, such as claiming that they have sued against an OTT and an unidentified police officer, he said.
In addition to other things, OTT is accused of supporting a non-specified Russian intelligence agency “from police databases to Jan Marsalek, one of the police databases between 2017-2021 and to unknown representatives of Russian intelligence service.
He claimed that he had received payment in return for OTT.
Marsalek is the former illegal chief business officer of the German payment company Wirecard, which collapsed in a scandal of approximately $ 4 billion for creditors. Marsalek has been running since then. A London court found that this year operated a Bulgarian spy for Russia in England.
OTT is also accused of supplying his so-called Sina-S laptop to a person who is unknown for an unknown person for $ 20,000 ($ 23,000), including the hardware used by the European Union governments for safe communication by the governments of the European Union. He added that the laptop was then delivered to a Russian intelligence agency.
Marsalek, an Austrian, organized Russian espionage activities in his own country and operated a double agent in local intelligence service. Considering the illegal status, it is not known that no one represents Marsalek in this regard.
The issue also took part in the parliamentary elections last year, and several sides accused the far -right Freedom Party (FPO) of being a pro -Russian pro -Russian.
The FPO was the first in the election, but the ruling could not establish a coalition. The Conservative People’s Party is now leading a three -way coalition government with other central parties.
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(By Francois Murphyediting by Frances Kerry)
