This was confirmed by the spokeswoman for the Vienna public prosecutor’s office, Nina Bussek, following the “Falter” (online) first reported on it. Bussek said Ott was being investigated by the Vienna prosecution for abuse of office and secret intelligence services to the detriment of Austria.
According to the spokeswoman, a second person was also arrested. Bussek did not want to provide any information regarding their identities. According to “Falter” it is said to be Ott’s son-in-law.
Ott was an employee of the now dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT). Most recently he 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.
Obtained information for Russia?
Ott is said to have – together with a second ex-BVT employee – obtained information for Marsalek and Russia, drawing on his previous activities as a secret service agent and police attaché in Italy. According to the German news magazine “Spiegel”, the information was regarding journalists living in Europe and a Kazakh opposition politician.
Ott denied the allegations once morest him in an interview with “Spiegel”. Regardless, the evidence was now sufficient for the Vienna public prosecutor’s office to issue an arrest order. The former BVT employee is now being questioned, as authorities spokeswoman Bussek confirmed. It is unclear whether an application will be made for pre-trial detention. The public prosecutor’s office has 48 hours to do this – until Easter Sunday.
Information from abroad as early as 2017
Foreign partner services had already drawn the attention of the BVT, which was replaced by the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) in December 2021, in January 2017 that the BVT would provide confidential information that foreign sources would provide to domestic state security forces for the purpose of researching and averting threats to unauthorized parties – namely Russian secret services. Egisto Ott was suspected of being the “mole” because he was said to have established contact with the Russian intelligence service as a contact in Turkey. He is said to have subsequently forwarded classified information – such as a strictly confidential memo from BVT and an inquiry from the FBI – from his work email address to his private email address and then handed it over to Russian intelligence services or unauthorized persons. Ott is presumed innocent.
Ott’s superior at BVT at the time was Martin Weiss, who is now in Dubai and who is no longer accessible to the local judiciary for the time being. Although he was suspended, Ott is said to have continued to obtain sensitive information for a fee for Weiss and ex-Wirecard board member Marsalek, which – it is suspected – was at least largely intended for Russia.
This article was updated at 12:02 p.m.
