Ex-intelligence officer accused of betraying Austria in Russia spying trial

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

Egisto Ott, who told the court on Thursday that he was not guilty, is charged with having handed over information to Russian intelligence officers and to Jan Marsalek, the fugitive executive of collapsed German payments firm Wirecard.

The prosecutor told the court that Ott, 63, was “not romantic about Russia” but had acted out of financial motives and frustration with his career.

Ott’s lawyer, Anna Mair, rejected the allegations, asking: “Don’t you think that if he had really been spying for Russia, he would have covered his tracks?”

The prosecutor argued that people like him were “very susceptible” to working for the Russians: “They are frustrated in their careers and urgently need money.”

He had done “excellent” work for the Russian secret service”, the prosecution added. “Simply put, this was betraying the country.”

Egisto Ott had been broke since 2013 at the latest, the court heard: “The Russian secret service pays very well.”

He is alleged to have “abused his authority” as an Austrian intelligence official by collecting large amounts of personal data, such as locations, vehicle registration numbers, or travel movements.

Prosecutors say he did this between 2015 and 2020 without authorisation, often using national and international police databases.

They also accuse him of supporting “a secret intelligence service of the Russian Federation to the detriment of the Republic of Austria” by collecting secret facts and a large amount of personal data from police databases between 2017 and 2021.

The spy scandal has revived fears that Austria remains a hotbed of Russian espionage activity and observers will also be watching closely for details that could emerge about Jan Marsalek.

Marsalek, who is also an Austrian citizen, is wanted by German police for alleged fraud and is currently believed to be in Moscow, having fled via Austria in 2020.

The subject of an Interpol Red Notice, he is alleged to be an intelligence asset for the FSB, Russia’s secretive security service.

Prosecutors allege that Egisto Ott handed information to Marsalek and unknown representatives of the Russian intelligence service, and received payment in return.

In 2022, they say, Marsalek commissioned him to obtain a laptop containing secret electronic security hardware used by EU states for secure electronic communication. The laptop, they say, was handed over to the Russian intelligence service.

Egisto Ott is also suspected, reports say, of having passed phone data from senior Austrian interior ministry officials to Russia.

Austria’s Standard newspaper says Egisto Ott apparently obtained the work phones after they accidentally fell into the River Danube on an interior ministry boating trip.

He is alleged to have copied their contents and passed them on to Jan Marsalek, and Moscow.

Egisto Ott is charged with abuse of authority and corruption and espionage against Austria and faces up to five years in prison, if he is found guilty.

When he was arrested in 2024, Austria’s then Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, described the case as “a threat to democracy and our country’s national security”.

In a separate development, prosecutors in the Austrian town of Wiener Neustadt have told the BBC that a former MP, Thomas Schellenbacher, has been charged with helping Marsalek to escape following the collapse of the Wirecard company in 2020, when it emerged that €1.9bn (£1.7bn) was missing from its accounts.

Schellenbacher is alleged to have helped Jan Marsalek fly to Belarus, from Bad Vöslau in Austria, in June 2020.

Schellenbacher was an MP for the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which has been accused by Austria’s Green Party, now in opposition, of enabling Russian espionage, of acting as “an extension of Russia’s arm” in Austria.

The FPÖ and its leader Herbert Kickl have denied the allegations – and have not faced any legal action in connection with any of them.

Marsalek, who was the Wirecard’s Chief Operating Officer, has since been charged with fraud and embezzlement, suspected of having inflated company’s balance sheet total and sales volume.

He is also believed to have been the controller of a group of Bulgarians who were convicted in London in 2025, of spying for Russia.

Messages from that trial reveal Marsalek has had plastic surgery to alter his appearance as well as details of his life as a fugitive.

“I’m off to bed. Had another cosmetic surgery, trying to look differently, and I am dead tired and my head hurts,” he wrote to one of the Bulgarians, Roussev, on Telegram in February 2022.

In another, dated 11 May 2021, Roussev congratulated Marsalek for learning Russian.

“Well I am trying to improve my skills on a few fronts. Languages is one of them,” the Austrian responded.

“In my new role as an international fugitive I must outperform James Bond.”