Ott espionage case

ÖVP and FPÖ accuse each other of Russian swamp

Hanger (left) and Hafenecker (right) go at each other.

(Bild: APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER)

The ÖVP and FPÖ are exchanging blows in the National Council election campaign over the Egisto Ott espionage case. The first indictment against the former constitutional protection officer and former FPÖ politician Hans-Jörg Jenewein would confirm a blue security risk according to the ÖVP. The Freedom Party, on the other hand, sees black "fairy tales".

ÖVP mandatary Andreas Hanger saw it as proven on Thursday that FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl "is an absolute security risk for Austria". FPÖ Secretary General Christian Hafenecker rejected the accusations.

As was announced on Wednesday, the Vienna public prosecutor's office has filed a first indictment against former secret service agent Ott on suspicion of abuse of office. Ott is accused of having, as an official of the Ministry of the Interior, commissioned another official on behalf of Jenewein, who has also been charged, to obtain information on participants in a meeting of European intelligence and secret services.

Loose handling of confidential data
Jenewein is also accused of passing on confidential documents that became accessible to him as a politician and member of the U Committee in June 2021 and of taking photos of persons providing information and sending them to third parties.

The presumption of innocence applies.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV)

Ott is also accused of having passed on the names of members of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to Jenewein as a police officer and of having asked a police officer to collect the names of the officers investigating the Ibiza case.

Link to Kickl logical for ÖVP
ÖVP politician Hanger was convinced on Thursday that there was a "very close connection" between the suspected Russian spy Ott and the FPÖ via Jenewein. It was "unrealistic" that Kickl was not involved or privy to the flow of information between Ott and Jenewein.

For example, as Interior Minister, Kickl had given Ott a central role in the reorganization of the secret service after the raid on the BVT. As Interior Minister, Kickl had "destroyed the Austrian secret service", Hanger affirmed. The only question is whether he did this out of "incompetence", "or did he deliberately betray Austria's security interests to Russia?"

ÖVP with what-if game
The security authorities were only able to prevent a terrorist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna recently because the intelligence services were warned by international services - if they had been cut off from such information flows, as they were under Interior Minister Kickl, "this could have had catastrophic consequences", says Hanger.

"The hundred and forty-seventh continuation of Hanger's fairy tale" was the view of the Blue Secretary General Hafenecker. It was "admirable" how Hanger could "twist reality" again and again. Not so long ago, it was the ÖVP that had sought contact with Russia.

FPÖ recalls black Russia connections
The Austrian-Russian Friendship Society, for example, was "in ÖVP hands". Hafenecker also recalled a photo in which ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who was also involved in the espionage case, and ex-Interior Minister and current National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) can be seen at a dinner in the Austrian embassy in Moscow in 2017.

Files were also passed on to the ÖVP. The FPÖ had already filed a complaint because Hanger had held documents from the Ministry of the Interior up to the cameras that had not even existed in the U Committee, Hafenecker once again identified a "deep state".