Austria’s greatest spy trial for many years places ex-intelligence officer within the dock

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

Egisto Ott, 63, is charged with having handed over info to Russian intelligence officers and to Jan Marsalek, the fugitive government of collapsed German funds agency Wirecard.

Ott denies the fees.

Jan Marsalek, who can also be an Austrian citizen, is needed by German police for alleged fraud and is presently believed to be in Moscow, having fled by way of Austria in 2020.

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

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

Prosecutors in Vienna say Egisto Ott “abused his authority” as an Austrian intelligence official by accumulating giant quantities of private information, corresponding to areas, automobile registration numbers, or journey actions.

They are saying he did this between 2015 and 2020 with out authorisation, typically utilizing nationwide and worldwide police databases.

Prosecutors additionally cost him with supporting “a secret intelligence service of the Russian Federation to the detriment of the Republic of Austria” by accumulating secret information and a considerable amount of private information from police databases between 2017 and 2021.

They are saying Egisto Ott gave this info to Jan Marsalek and unknown representatives of the Russian intelligence service, and obtained cost in return.

In 2022, prosecutors say, Jan 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.

He’s additionally suspected, experiences say, of getting handed cellphone information from senior Austrian inside ministry officers to Russia.

Austria’s Customary newspaper says Egisto Ott apparently obtained the work telephones after they by accident 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 in opposition to 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 growth, 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 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 stability sheet whole and gross sales quantity.

He’s additionally believed to have been the controller of a gaggle 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, making an attempt 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 Might 2021, Roussev congratulated Marsalek for studying Russian.

“Effectively I’m making an attempt to enhance my expertise on a number of fronts. Languages is one among them,” the Austrian responded.

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