Moscow’s arm extends to the Heinz-Nittel-Hof in Vienna-Floridsdorf. This is where the handcuffs for the son-in-law of ex-constitutional official Egisto Ott clicked on Good Friday.
The “Krone” reported in detail about the Ott case: Last Friday, the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was arrested in his Carinthian villa on suspicion of espionage and has been in custody ever since. Almost at the same time, a spectacular police operation took place in the Nittel-Hof, which is a topic of discussion in the enormous community home.
The “crown” on site in a Viennese municipal building – in an apartment there the ruble rolled with Russian spies.
What the residents could not have expected: one of their neighbors is in the middle of the spy thriller instead of just there, an apartment that is the scene of multiple espionage activities “to the detriment of Austria”, as is officially said.
Ott’s son-in-law was taken away on Good Friday and is said to have carried out the transfer – information in exchange for cash – in his apartment. The 51-year-old is now free again.
Further investigation will reveal whether he was just an unsuspecting errand boy or whether he was deeper in the espionage swamp. The client was Phantom Jan Marsalek, the ‘Most Wanted’ who was in hiding in Moscow.
Private apartments already served various functions for secret and intelligence services during the Cold War, says Dieter Bacher, a secret service expert at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War.
However, these are usually hired from front men or front organizations. This is not the case in the Ott case, where a family member’s municipal apartment was used for a different purpose: “Something like that is risky and actually an unnecessary risk from an operational perspective,” Bacher explains. Meeting each other while walking through the Danube Meadows would probably have been safer – at least that’s what the ‘professionals’ did during the Cold War.
Dieter Bacher is our guest live today at 9:30 am on krone.tv – listen in!
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
