A high-profile espionage trial commenced Thursday in Vienna’s criminal court against Egisto Ott, a former Austrian intelligence official accused of systematically leaking state secrets to Russia. The 63-year-old ex-agent faces multiple charges including abuse of office, corruption, and espionage activities allegedly conducted between 2015 and 2022.
The case centers on Ott’s purported collaboration with Jan Marsalek, an Austrian executive of the collapsed German payment firm Wirecard, who remains a fugitive wanted for fraud and suspected ties to Russia’s FSB intelligence service. Prosecutors allege Ott received over €80,000 in payments for providing sensitive devices and confidential information that compromised Austria’s national security.
According to the indictment, Ott’s actions risked inflicting “serious damage” to Austria’s reputation among allied intelligence services. His alleged activities included exploiting European databases and submitting assistance requests to Italy and Britain that inadvertently advanced Moscow’s interests.
The prosecution details how Ott supposedly handed over interior ministry officials’ cell phones, exposing thousands of contacts and endangering Ukrainian and Chechen refugees in Austria. Most alarmingly, he allegedly provided Russia with an encrypted laptop containing secure communication hardware, which was subsequently transferred to Iran.
Investigators discovered Ott had compiled what prosecutors termed an “assassination manual” following the 2019 Berlin murder of a Georgian-Chechen individual by Russian agents. The document allegedly provided instructions for conducting future assassinations within EU territory.
The trial represents the latest development in Austria’s ongoing reckoning with Russian espionage activities, challenging the nation’s historical identity as a bridge between Moscow and the West. Ott, who was suspended in 2017 and briefly arrested in 2021, faces up to five years imprisonment if convicted.