On Monday, the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Affairs ruled against the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on suspicion of espionage. Egisto is there Ordered pre-trial detention. Court spokeswoman Christina Salsborn declined to comment what– The request is known. “The reasons for deterrence are collective risk and risk of offending,” Salsborn said. Oates' former son-in-law, who was arrested last Friday, was also released due to lack of suspicion.
According to Salsborn, when questioned by the judge, Ott denied all the charges against him. However, he did not appeal against his detention and hence the detention order is legally effective.
The National Security Council meets
Meanwhile, the central chancellor Carl Nehammer (ÖVP) convened the National Security Council (NSR) on 9 April. An invitation to the Greens to meet on Friday – a request from a parliamentary committee is sufficient. Federal President is formally responsible for convening the meeting.
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“There are allegations of espionage against Egisto Ott, a former employee of PVD,” Nehhammer said in a broadcast on Monday. “These accusations are serious. On the one hand, these accusations must now be clarified by the judiciary. On the other hand, the security situation of the republic must be evaluated and clarified. Russian espionage networks must penetrate and prevent threats to our country. Political parties or networks become instrumental.” The NSR is a body where these questions can be debated. Before that, NEOS called for an intelligence committee to be convened. Defense spokeswoman Stephanie Crisper announced two parliamentary questions to the Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary in a broadcast.
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Ott, who was a member of the now-defunct Federal Office for Constitutional Protection and Combating Terrorism (BVT), has been under investigation by a Vienna prosecutor since 2017 for, among other things, abuse of office, damaging secret intelligence in Austria and breach of official secrecy. The arrest on Good Friday was prompted by the latest information from Great Britain, according to which Ott allegedly sent the mirrored contents of the smartphones of three (former) high-ranking officials of the Interior Ministry to the Russian secret services – presumably the domestic secret service FSB – in the summer of 2022.
The stolen smartphones were the devices of Michael Kloppmuller, the former head of the Interior Ministry's cabinet for many years, the current Federal Police Director Michael Daugax, and Gernot Meyer, Director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum. Three cell phones were “victimized” in an accident in 2017. During a home ministry excursion, a boat capsized and smartphones fell into the water. An IT specialist from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was asked to repair the company's cell phones.
Trials against Sobotka
The IT specialist made copies of the devices and sent them to Ott and others. Chats from Kloibmüller's smartphone also reached the public prosecutor's office and the media. They led to investigations against Kloepmüller and the former interior minister on suspicion of mail corruption Wolfgang SobotkaAlthough proceedings against the latter have already been discontinued.
Former Wireguard board member JA marshal He made headlines for allegedly helping to set up an intelligence unit for Russia within the BVT. Ott, along with former BVT department head Martin Weiss, allegedly obtained information for Marsalek and Russia, allowing him to draw on his previous activities as a constitutional protection officer and police liaison. German news magazine Spiegel According to him, it was information about journalists living in Europe and a Kazakh opposition politician.
