VIENNA (Reuters) -Former Austrian intelligence official Egisto Ott is dealing with a prison case, accused of corruption and spying for Russia by supplying an encrypted laptop computer and leaking delicate info for years, prosecutors said on Friday.
Ott, who previously labored for the now defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT), which was then Austria’s essential home intelligence company, was arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of spying.
Ott has denied all wrongdoing. His lawyer declined to remark on Friday.
Vienna prosecutors said in a assertion they were bringing a case against Ott and an unidentified police officer, alleging offences including working for or supporting an intelligence company to the detriment of Austria, bribery, misuse of workplace and breaching official secrecy.
The assertion said Ott is accused, among other issues, of supporting an unspecified Russian intelligence company by “collecting secret information and a large amount of personal data from police databases between 2017 and 2021 for the purpose of transmitting them to Jan Marsalek and unknown representatives of the Russian intelligence service”.
It added that Ott allegedly acquired fee in exchange.
Marsalek is the fugitive former chief working officer of German funds company Wirecard that collapsed in scandal in 2020 owing collectors virtually $4 billion. Marsalek has been on the run since then. A London court discovered this yr that he had run a ring of Bulgarian spies in Britain working for Russia.
Ott is also accused of supplying, at Marsalek’s behest, a so-called SINA-S laptop computer, including {hardware} used by European Union governments for secure communications, to an unknown particular person in exchange for 20,000 euros ($23,000). The laptop computer was then handed over to a Russian intelligence company, it added.
Allegations and evidence have been mounting that Marsalek, who is Austrian, orchestrated Russian spying actions in his home nation and ran double brokers in its home intelligence service. Given his fugitive standing, nobody is recognized to signify Marsalek in this matter.
The situation also featured in last yr’s parliamentary election, with several events accusing the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) of being dangerously pro-Russia, which it denies.
The FPO came first in the election but was unable to kind a ruling coalition. The conservative People’s Party now leads a three-way coalition authorities with other centrist events.
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(Reporting by Francois MurphyEditing by Frances Kerry)
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