On Sunday, Vienna’s public prosecutor’s office requested pre-trial detention against suspected Russian agent Egisto Ott and his ex-son-in-law, they confirmed to the Crown. There is therefore an urgent risk that the crime will be committed and that the crime will remain hidden.
The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office will file corresponding requests against Egisto Ott and his ex-son-in-law at the Regional Criminal Court later today. A decision must be made within 48 hours.
Hand over the contents of mobile phones to the Russians?
Ott has been investigated by the Public Prosecution Service in Vienna since 2017 for, among other things, abuse of office, secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria and violation of official secrecy. The arrest was preceded by recent information that Ott had handed over the contents of top officials’ mobile phones to Russian spies.
His ex-son-in-law, who is believed to be a contributor, was also arrested. According to Bussek, both were admitted to Josefstadt prison on Saturday evening after completing their police interrogation on the allegations against them.
The parties place responsibility on each other
In the meantime, the parties continue to try to shift political responsibility for the alleged espionage case to themselves. ÖVP Secretary General Christian Stocker wants to tackle this in the investigative committee into the “red-blue abuse of power” and therefore expand it with more investigation days. Ex-FPÖ mandate Hans-Jörg Jenewein, among others, will be invited because he spoke extensively with Ott during the BVT-U committee.
FPÖ sees that ÖVP “emphasizes Russia-friendly”
FPÖ Secretary General Christian Hafenecker in turn rejected this: “On the first day, the ÖVP was instructed by the trial judge that the alleged Russian influence was not a problem for the U-Commission,” Hafenecker said in a broadcast. Moreover, the “espionage scandal has its roots in the ÖVP-led Ministry of the Interior since the Ernst Strasser era, starting in 2000.” This has been “emphatically Russia-friendly” since the former ÖVP Interior Minister.
Ott was arrested in Carinthia, his ex-son-in-law in Vienna. Searches also took place at their addresses.
Connections with Jan Marsalek
Ott was an employee of the now defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Combating of Terrorism (BVT). He recently made the news in connection with the fugitive ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, whom he is said to have helped set up a spy cell for Russia within the BVT.
Ott is said to have gathered information for Marsalek and Russia together with former BVT department head Martin Weiss, drawing on his previous activities as a constitutional protection officer and police attaché. According to the German news magazine Spiegel, the information concerned journalists living in Europe and a Kazakh opposition politician.
Tips from Great Britain led to an arrest
The arrest took place following information from Great Britain that Ott had forwarded the mirrored contents of smartphones of three (ex) top officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to Russian secret services in the summer of 2022 – probably to the domestic secret service FSB.
The stolen smartphones are said to be the devices of Michael Kloibmüller, chief of staff of the Ministry of the Interior for many years, the current director of the federal police Michael Takacs, and Gernot Maier, director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum. Ott is presumed innocent.
Explosive information about ‘sunken’ mobile phones
The three mobile phones were ‘victims’ of an accident in 2017. During an excursion by the Ministry of the Interior, a canoe capsized and the smartphones fell into the water. An IT technician from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was then asked to repair the company’s mobile phones. Apparently he made copies of the devices and passed them on to Ott and others.
Chats from Kloibmüller’s smartphone also reached the Public Prosecution Service and the media. They led to investigations against Kloibmüller and former Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka on suspicion of postal corruption, although proceedings against the latter have already been dropped.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
