BVT espionage scandal

ÖVP: Kickl wanted to elevate Ott to a “central role”

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH, romanevgenev, Krone KREATIV)

Andreas Hanger, a member of the ÖVP, has made serious accusations against FPÖ chairman Herbert Kickl. He accuses Kickl of having "betrayed Austria's security to Russia". At a press conference on Monday, Hanger presented several "clues" - including a connection to the alleged double agent Egisto Ott.

Hanger jumped back to 2018, when the infamous raid on the Austrian secret service BVT took place during Kickl's term as interior minister - triggered by a dossier full of accusations allegedly written by former BVT official Ott.

"Central role" for Ott
The intelligence service was "destroyed" by the raid, and the then chief inspector Egisto Ott was then supposed to play "a very central role" in the newly established BVT, according to Hanger. This emerged from files for the U Committee on the "red-blue abuse of power". He uncovered an organization chart according to which Ott, although already suspended at the time, should have become a key employee in the "BVT neu" in the Foreign Ministry.

Herbert Kickl had betrayed Austria's security to Russia.

ÖVP-Abgeordneter Hanger äußerte einen harten Vorwurf.

Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK

This "mini-BVT" was never established, as the change of government in May 2019 intervened. However, it had been planned that Ott would have worked in the coordination office, where he would have had access to all relevant security information, "which would probably have been passed directly to Russia", Hanger speculated.

Egisto Ott is said to have sold information to Russia as an employee of the BVT.

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH, romanevgenev, Krone KREATIV)

"Extremely Putin-friendly"
The ÖVP parliamentary group leader in the U-committee on "red-blue abuse of power" considers it "conceivable" that Kickl, as Interior Minister at the time, deliberately placed the suspected Russian spy in this position. He cited the fact that Kickl was "extremely Putin-friendly" and that the FPÖ concluded a friendship agreement with the Kremlin leader's party, United Russia, as "circumstantial evidence".

There was also a chat message from former FPÖ security spokesperson Hans-Jörg Jenewein in which he had announced to constitutional protector Egisto Ott that he would "definitely be involved" in the restructuring of the secret service in spring 2019. "We will find a good solution for everyone who helped," Hanger quoted.

Jenewein to be questioned
The current FPÖ leader is to be questioned on Thursday as to whether he was aware of Ott's alleged espionage activities. Jenewein, who was considered Kickl's right-hand man but has since left the party, is also to be questioned by the parliamentary committee of inquiry. A senior official from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has also been summoned.

FPÖ rejects allegations
The FPÖ immediately rejected Hanger's claims. He did not know the organization chart, said General Secretary Christian Hafenecker on the sidelines of a press conference. "I don't know where Mr. Hanger wants to get this organization chart from". Hafenecker sees the former head of the BVT, Peter Gridling, as the main culprit behind the events at the BVT. He was brought in by former Interior Minister Günther Platter (ÖVP) and was then "never taken seriously" by the "Bern Club" (an informal association of European intelligence services). "He never had anything under control in the intelligence service." It is also a "fact", Hafenecker emphasized, that Ott was "suspended and then reinstated under Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) - that has nothing to do with us either".