After complaint
Automatically saved draft
Egisto Ott is at large. The former domestic secret service employee, who is accused of serious espionage against Austria, was released from custody on Wednesday. The reason lies in the past.
The ex-BVT man, who is alleged to have betrayed Austrian state secrets to Russia, had lodged an appeal against his pre-trial detention. This has now been upheld. In short: there is no danger of committing the crime - making the pre-trial detention inadmissible, according to the Vienna Higher Regional Court.
Among other things, Ott is alleged to have handed over the work cell phones of three former cabinet members of the Ministry of the Interior to the Russian domestic intelligence service in 2017.
Canoe accident as a pretext
The devices had fallen into the water during a boat trip by the Ministry of the Interior when a canoe capsized. Ott and a forensic scientist - who is under investigation for embezzlement - are said to have subsequently pretended to those affected that their cell phones were unusable.
Specifically, he was arrested on 29.3.2024 on "suspicion of abuse of authority, secret intelligence to the detriment of the Republic of Austria, violation of official secrecy" and other offenses and taken into custody on 30.3.2024.
"No further criminal offenses committed"
The exact reason given by the court for his release: there were "no indications that the defendant had committed any further criminal offenses after an earlier pre-trial detention at the beginning of 2021".
The facts on which the urgent suspicion had been based therefore predate the remand in custody imposed at the time - which meant that a new detention could not be justified.
"He left the Josefstadt prison around an hour ago," confirmed a spokesperson for the Vienna Regional Court shortly after 12 noon on Wednesday. Ott denies having anything to do with obtaining the cell phones and passing them on.
"Smashed with a hammer"
Rather, the phones were "placed in an envelope in the letterbox in my Vienna apartment", Ott claimed in a hearing on March 30, 2024. He then "smashed the phones with a sledgehammer".
However, the former BVT chief inspector is also suspected of having sold a laptop with potentially explosive data material to the Russian secret service. The deal was allegedly arranged by former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who is now said to be working for the Russian secret service.
With regard to the so-called SINA laptops, Ott is said to have at least confessed that he knew of a total of five, one of which was "abroad, but not in Russia". He is presumed innocent.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.