VIENNA: An Austrian court on Wednesday ordered a former intelligence officer suspected of spying for Russia released from detention, as investigators continue probing the case.
Egisto Ott -- a former agent of the now-defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) -- was arrested in late March.
He was accused of "systematically" providing information to the Russian secret services, allegations that have shaken the nation.
The Vienna high court ordered the release of Ott, saying in a statement that there was no risk of him committing crimes once released. But he remained under investigation for suspected crimes, it added.
Ott was suspended from his post in 2017 amid allegations of spying and briefly arrested in 2021 on these same accusations.
He was detained in March after London said his name had come up in written messages exchanged between a suspected spy arrested in Britain and Jan Marsalek.
Marsalek is the Austrian former chief operating officer of payments firm Wirecard, who fled Germany in 2020 -- reportedly to Russia -- over fraud allegations following the company's spectacular collapse.
Based on the seized messages, Ott was accused of having passed the smartphone data of three senior officials to Russia in return for payment.
He is also accused of having supplied a laptop containing confidential documents, according to the arrest warrant obtained by AFP.
Suspected of having helped Marsalek, Ott is accused, too, of having spied on Russia critics.
They included Christo Grozev, a journalist with the Bellingcat investigative website, who was investigating Moscow's spy networks. He left Vienna after a break-in at his apartment.
Contacted by AFP before his most recent arrest, Ott denied any accusation of spying for Russia.
Since his arrest, information from the prosecution has leaked, according to which moles close to the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) are still operating in Vienna.
The FPOe used to have a "cooperation pact" with Russian President Vladimir Putin's party.
It governed Austria as junior partner in a coalition government from 2017 to 2019 and polls suggest it could win the national elections in September.
It was during the current FPOe leader Herbert Kickl's time as interior minister in 2018 that the authorities raided the country's intelligence service, seriously damaging its reputation.
After Ott's arrest, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for heightened security in the country.
The EU country of nine million has traditionally seen itself as a bridge between the East and West, but in recent years has been rocked by several cases centred on suspected spying for Moscow.
Austrian in Russia spying probe freed from detention
https://arab.news/cfun9
Austrian in Russia spying probe freed from detention
- The Vienna high court ordered the release of Ott, saying in a statement that there was no risk of him committing crimes once released
- He remained under investigation for suspected crimes
Mali, Burkina say restricting entry for US nationals in reciprocal move
- Both countries said they are applying the same measures on American nationals as imposed on them
ABIDJAN: Mali and Burkina Faso have announced travel restrictions on American nationals in a tit-for-tat move after the US included both African countries on a no-entry list.
In statements issued separately by both countries’ foreign ministries and seen Wednesday by AFP, they said they were imposing “equivalent measures” on US citizens, after President Donald Trump expanded a travel ban to nearly 40 countries this month, based solely on nationality.
That list included Syrian citizens, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, and nationals of some of Africa’s poorest countries including also Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.
The White House said it was banning foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans.
Burkina Faso’s foreign ministry said in the statement that it was applying “equivalent visa measures” on Americans, while Mali said it was, “with immediate effect,” applying “the same conditions and requirements on American nationals that the American authorities have imposed on Malian citizens entering the United States.”
It voiced its “regret” that the United States had made “such an important decision without the slightest prior consultation.”
The two sub-Saharan countries, both run by military juntas, are members of a confederation that also includes Niger.
Niger has not officially announced any counter-measures to the US travel ban, but the country’s news agency, citing a diplomatic source, said last week that such measures had been decided.
In his December 17 announcement, Trump also imposed partial travel restrictions on citizens of other African countries including the most populous, Nigeria, as well as Ivory Coast and Senegal, which qualified for the football World Cup to be played next year in the United States as well as Canada and Mexico.
