“Our friend” in the BVT – Explosive Marsalek chats brought Ott into custody

The chats were sent from Britain to the Vienna public prosecutor’s office, along with several reports (the latest arrived on March 13). They show that Ott “systematically” provided the Russian secret service with secret, strictly confidential facts and findings from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as well as personal data from police databases. In any case, the Public Prosecution Service bases its arrest warrant on this.

“Evacuation” orchestrated by ex-BVT department head to Dubai
This shows that Weiss, as head of the espionage department at the now defunct BVT (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Combating of Terrorism), had close contact with Marsalek and the spy Orlin R., who is now imprisoned in Great Britain. Weiss is referred to as Ott’s ‘contact person and customer’. Marsalek, who allegedly worked for the Russian secret service, called Weiss “our friend” in a conversation with R. and explained that he had organized his “evacuation” to Dubai. There Weiss is safe from the access of the Austrian authorities because there is no extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates.

Handing over a mobile phone to Ott’s ex-son-in-law’s apartment in Vienna
The chats also show that on June 10, 2022, explosive documents were handed over to men for transport to Moscow at the behest of Marsalek in the Vienna apartment of Ott’s ex-son-in-law. These were the mirrored mobile phones of three top officials of the Ministry of Interior. The 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.

The devices then ended up at Ott. He is said to have tried in vain to have them assessed in the autumn of 2019, to get them back and ultimately to make them available to the Russian secret service in the apartment of his ex-son-in-law. On August 12, 2022 – almost two months after the devices were handed over – a courier sent by Marsalek allegedly delivered an undisclosed amount of cash to the same address – apparently in exchange for the mobile phones.

“Dirty laundry types” raised 20,000 euros for laptop documents
In the same year, men from the Russian secret service again appeared at the address of Ott’s ex-son-in-law. On November 19, 2022, they allegedly received a laptop with secret documents that were not intended for the public and paid 20,000 euros for it. The Marsalek chats talk about ‘washermen’ who allegedly brought the money to Vienna on behalf of Marsalek. As Marsalek told Orlin R., the laptop was allegedly taken “to Lubyanka” – the headquarters of Russia’s domestic secret service FSB.

Egisto Ott in turn allegedly systematically searched police databases when gathering information for Marsalek or the Russian secret service and claimed an untruthful reference to BVT. He is even said to have ‘bugged’ British and Italian sources using legal aid requests. Ott, who denies all charges, is presumed innocent. However, the Vienna Regional Court considers that there is a strong suspicion of the crime and that there is a risk that the crime will be committed and remain hidden, and Ott was remanded in custody on Monday.