Former Austrian intelligence officer indicted in Russia-linked spying scandal
VIENNA (AP) — Austrian prosecutors said Friday they have indicted a former intelligence officer on charges that include supporting a Russian intelligence service in the country’s biggest spying scandal in decades.
Egisto Ott is accused of espionage to the detriment of Austria and abuse of office, among other charges, Vienna prosecutors said in a statement. The indictment was filed to the state court in the Austrian capital.
Ott was arrested in March last year but released from custody three months later when a court said it didn’t see a danger of him offending at present.
Between 2017 and 2021, Ott is suspected of having collected sensitive information as well as personal information from police databases to pass to Jan Marsalek and unidentified representatives of Russian intelligence, prosecutors said. Marsalek is 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.
Ott is accused of accepting “financial rewards” for that information.
Last year’s arrest warrant for Ott said that 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.
Prosecutors also alleged that, in November 2022, Ott — at Marsalek’s behest — handed a laptop containing hardware used by European Union countries for secure communication to an unidentified accomplice in exchange for 20,000 euros ($23,300). The computer was then handed over to a Russian intelligence service, they said.
A second suspect, a police officer whose name prosecutors didn’t release, was charged with abetting some of Ott’s actions by passing on personal information without official authorization. Both suspects could face prison sentences of between six months and five years if convicted, prosecutors said.
