Austrian ex-intelligence officer guilty of Russia spying in the biggest espionage trial the country has seen in years. The man who was supposed to protect Austria sold it out. For money. For frustration. For reasons so petty they barely make sense.
Egisto Ott is 63 years old. He was an intelligence official. He had access to police databases, secret information, and the trust of the state. For five years he handed that trust straight to Moscow. A jury in Vienna found him guilty on multiple charges including spying, bribery, misuse of office, fraud, and breach of trust. The sentence is four years and one month in prison. His lawyer is appealing. The verdict still stands.
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The court heard how Ott collected secret facts and personal data from police systems between 2015 and 2020. He passed it to Jan Marsalek, the fugitive Wirecard executive who fled to Moscow and is now wanted by Interpol. Marsalek is believed to be a Russian intelligence asset. He gave Ott orders. Ott carried them out. One of those orders involved getting a laptop containing secret electronic security hardware used by EU states for secure communication. That laptop ended up in Russian hands.
Then there were the phones. Senior Austrian interior ministry officials accidentally dropped their work phones into the River Danube during a boating trip. Ott got hold of them. He copied their contents. He sent everything to Marsalek and on to Moscow.
Prosecutors said Ott was not a romantic about Russia. He did not spy out of ideology. He did it for money and because he was frustrated with his job. That is almost worse. No grand geopolitical loyalty. Just a man who felt undervalued and found someone willing to pay for his betrayal.
Ott denied everything. His defense was bizarre. He claimed he was not working for Moscow but carrying out a covert operation with a Western intelligence service. The jury did not believe him. Neither did anyone else.
When Ott was arrested in 2024, Austria’s then chancellor called the case a threat to democracy and national security. He was right. The scandal has revived fears that Austria remains a playground for Russian spies. The trial is over. The damage is not.
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