Ex-Austria security official held on suspicion of spying
A former Austrian domestic intelligence official, Egisto Ott, allegedly linked to a fugitive former executive of the collapsed German payments firm Wirecard, has been arrested on suspicion of espionage.
Ott, a former employee of the now-defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT), was detained on Friday along with another individual, as confirmed by a spokesperson for the Vienna public prosecutor’s office.
While the spokesperson did not disclose the specifics of the spying accusations against Ott, they mentioned that the charges involve abuse of office and are considered detrimental to Austria's interests.
Ott, maintaining his innocence, has not provided a comment at the moment.
According to reports from German and Austrian media outlets, Ott is suspected of sharing information with Jan Marsalek, a former board member of Wirecard and an Austrian national who is currently wanted by German authorities for alleged fraud. Marsalek's current whereabouts remain unknown.
German magazine Der Spiegel reported that Ott, along with another former Austrian security official, allegedly supplied Marsalek with sensitive information. However, Ott refuted these allegations in an article published this month by the Austrian newspaper Der Standard.
A Munich court has been overseeing the trial of former Wirecard executives since December 2022.
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