Ex-intelligence officer accused of betraying Austria in Russia spying trial

Former intelligence official Egisto Ott has gone on trial in Vienna, accused of spying for Russia in what’s being dubbed Austria’s greatest spy trial in years.

Egisto Ott, who informed the court docket on Thursday that he was not responsible, is charged with having handed over data to Russian intelligence officers and to Jan Marsalek, the fugitive government of collapsed German funds agency Wirecard.

The prosecutor informed the court docket that Ott, 63, was “not romantic about Russia” however had acted out of monetary motives and frustration along with his profession.

Ott’s lawyer, Anna Mair, rejected the allegations, asking: “Do not you suppose that if he had actually been spying for Russia, he would have coated his tracks?”

The prosecutor argued that individuals like him have been “very prone” to working for the Russians: “They’re annoyed of their careers and urgently want cash.”

He had carried out “wonderful” work for the Russian secret service”, the prosecution added. “Merely put, this was betraying the nation.”

Egisto Ott had been broke since 2013 on the newest, the court docket heard: “The Russian secret service pays very nicely.”

He’s alleged to have “abused his authority” as an Austrian intelligence official by accumulating massive quantities of non-public information, resembling places, car registration numbers, or journey actions.

Prosecutors say he did this between 2015 and 2020 with out authorisation, typically utilizing nationwide and worldwide police databases.

Additionally they accuse him of supporting “a secret intelligence service of the Russian Federation to the detriment of the Republic of Austria” by accumulating secret details and a considerable amount of private information from police databases between 2017 and 2021.

The spy scandal has revived fears that Austria stays a hotbed of Russian espionage exercise and observers may also be watching carefully for particulars that would emerge about Jan Marsalek.

Marsalek, who can be an Austrian citizen, is needed by German police for alleged fraud and is at the moment believed to be in Moscow, having fled through Austria in 2020.

The topic of an Interpol Crimson Discover, he’s alleged to be an intelligence asset for the FSB, Russia’s secretive safety service.

Prosecutors allege that Egisto Ott handed data to Marsalek and unknown representatives of the Russian intelligence service, and acquired fee in return.

In 2022, they are saying, Marsalek commissioned him to acquire a laptop computer containing secret digital safety {hardware} utilized by EU states for safe digital communication. The laptop computer, they are saying, was handed over to the Russian intelligence service.

Egisto Ott can be suspected, stories say, of getting handed cellphone information from senior Austrian inside ministry officers to Russia.

Austria’s Normal newspaper says Egisto Ott apparently obtained the work telephones after they unintentionally fell into the River Danube on an inside ministry boating journey.

He’s alleged to have copied their contents and handed them on to Jan Marsalek, and Moscow.

Egisto Ott is charged with abuse of authority and corruption and espionage towards Austria and faces as much as 5 years in jail, if he’s discovered responsible.

When he was arrested in 2024, Austria’s then Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, described the case as “a menace to democracy and our nation’s nationwide safety”.

In a separate improvement, prosecutors within the Austrian city of Wiener Neustadt have informed the BBC {that a} former MP, Thomas Schellenbacher, has been charged with serving to Marsalek to flee following the collapse of the Wirecard firm in 2020, when it emerged that €1.9bn (£1.7bn) was lacking from its accounts.

Schellenbacher is alleged to have helped Jan Marsalek fly to Belarus, from Dangerous Vöslau in Austria, in June 2020.

Schellenbacher was an MP for the far-right Freedom Social gathering (FPÖ), which has been accused by Austria’s Inexperienced Social gathering, now in opposition, of enabling Russian espionage, of appearing as “an extension of Russia’s arm” in Austria.

The FPÖ and its chief Herbert Kickl have denied the allegations – and haven’t confronted any authorized motion in reference to any of them.

Marsalek, who was the Wirecard’s Chief Working Officer, has since been charged with fraud and embezzlement, suspected of getting inflated firm’s steadiness sheet whole and gross sales quantity.

He’s additionally believed to have been the controller of a bunch of Bulgarians who have been convicted in London in 2025, of spying for Russia.

Messages from that trial reveal Marsalek has had cosmetic surgery to change his look in addition to particulars of his life as a fugitive.

“I am off to mattress. Had one other beauty surgical procedure, attempting to look in another way, and I’m useless drained and my head hurts,” he wrote to one of many Bulgarians, Roussev, on Telegram in February 2022.

In one other, dated 11 Could 2021, Roussev congratulated Marsalek for studying Russian.

“Nicely I’m attempting to enhance my expertise on just a few fronts. Languages is one in all them,” the Austrian responded.

“In my new position as a global fugitive I need to outperform James Bond.”