Court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn announced this in response to an APA request. “The reasons for detention were the risk of collusion and the risk of committing a crime,” said Salzborn. Otts’ ex-son-in-law, who was also arrested last Friday, was released due to a lack of strong suspicion.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) has convened the National Security Council (NSR) on April 9th. The Greens called for the committee to meet on Friday – the request of a parliamentary group is sufficient for this. The Federal Chancellor is formally responsible for convening the meeting.
“There are allegations of espionage once morest Egisto Ott, a former employee at BVT,” said Nehammer in a broadcast on Monday. “These allegations are serious. On the one hand, these allegations must now be clarified by the judiciary. On the other hand, the security situation in the republic must be assessed and clarified. We must prevent Russian spy networks from threatening our country by infiltrating political parties or networks instrumentalize.” The NSR is the body in which these questions can be discussed. Before that, the NEOS are calling for the intelligence committee to be convened. Security spokeswoman Stephanie Krisper also announced two parliamentary questions to the Interior Minister and the Foreign Minister in a broadcast.
Investigations since 2017
Ott, a former employee of the now dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT), has been under investigation by the Vienna prosecution 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 is said to have handed over cell phone contents of top officials to Russian spies. The public prosecutor sees his ex-son-in-law as an accomplice.
Ott recently hit the headlines 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 obtained information for Marsalek and Russia together with the former BVT department head Martin Weiss, whereby he was able to draw on his previous activities as a constitutional protection officer and police attaché. According to the German news magazine “Spiegel”, the information was regarding journalists living in Europe and a Kazakh opposition politician.
Stolen smartphones
The arrest was led by information from Great Britain that Ott had transmitted the mirrored contents of smartphones of three (ex-) top officials from the Interior Ministry to Russian secret services – presumably to the domestic secret service FSB – in the summer of 2022. The stolen smartphones are said to be the devices of Michael Kloibmüller, who was head of cabinet in the Interior Ministry for years, the current Federal Police Director Michael Takacs, and Gernot Maier, director of the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum. Ott is presumed innocent.
The three cell phones were “victims” of an accident in 2017. During an Interior Ministry trip, 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 cell phones. He apparently made copies of the devices and passed them on to Ott and others. Chats from Kloibmüller’s smartphone also reached the public prosecutor’s office and the media. They led to investigations once morest Kloibmüller and former Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka on suspicion of postal corruption, although the proceedings once morest the latter have already been dropped.
