This was stated by one of those affected, as can be seen from a protocol from “AG Fama”, which is available to the APA. The data could “possibly also contain state secrets,” said the person concerned.
All three of Sobotka’s former employees stated that there were official secrets on their cell phones. However, “specially classified documents” should be excluded. The devices fell into the water on a boat trip run by the Interior Ministry on July 10, 2017, when a canoe capsized. They were subsequently taken to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT) for data recovery, with a forensic expert first drying them with rice grains. Apparently an attempt was made to bring in a specialist from Israel to read the data from the soaked cell phones, but this failed due to his financial demands.
Full extraction report available
Ott and the forensic scientist – who is being investigated by the Vienna public prosecutor’s office for embezzlement – are said to have subsequently led Sobotka’s employees at the time to believe that their cell phones were unusable, that the data had been irretrievably lost and that they would therefore destroy the devices. While it was probably no longer possible to access the stored data on two cell phones, this was probably at least partially possible with the third device. This is supported by a USB stick that was seized from an ex-police officer and entrepreneur during a house search in February 2021. The ex-police officer claims that Ott handed him the USB stick in September 2019 at the Oberlaa thermal baths. A complete extraction report on the forensic data backup of a cell phone was found on the USB stick, which could be assigned to one of the three affected former Sobotka employees based on the secured contacts and chats.
Ott denies having anything to do with the procurement of the cell phones and having passed them on. After his arrest on March 30th, he stated in his interview with the accused that the cell phones had been “placed in an envelope in the mailbox in my Vienna apartment”: “I don’t know by whom. To the caveat that these three phones were… I deny that they (…) were taken to Russia. At some point I physically destroyed these three telephones at home in Carinthia, i.e. smashed them with my fist. Afterwards I disposed of them in the trash can.”
Meanwhile, the news magazine “Profil” reports in its current issue that Ott’s former superior at BVT, the former counterintelligence chief Martin Weiss, was in April 2022 to give a statement to the public prosecutor’s office in Munich, apparently without the knowledge of the Austrian authorities and under Promise of safe conduct. Weiss is said to be in Dubai, where he is safe from Austrian access.
“Promises to the accused”
What was officially called the interrogation of the accused in Munich is now viewed by “AG Fama” in its report as “an act of exoneration agreed with Jan Marsalek,” writes “Profil”. The interrogation by the Munich public prosecutor’s office was carried out “without information or coordination with Austrian judicial or police departments,” according to the domestic investigators. In addition, there may have been “commitments to the accused”. Apparently what they mean is that the people of Munich promised the former head of the espionage department at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT) that he would be allowed to leave again.
It is not the first time that the German judiciary has blocked Austria’s investigations into the espionage aspects of the Wirecard case, according to the news magazine. In the past, the Austrian judiciary has repeatedly turned to Munich to promote cooperation. The Germans were moderately interested in what was an “absolute novelty,” according to “Profil,” citing investigative circles. The news magazine speculates that there could be a connection with the fact that Marsalek’s Wirecard processed payments from the German Federal Intelligence Service.
Shortly after Weiss went to the Munich public prosecutor’s office, the suspicion of helping to escape was dropped, it goes on to say – again, without speaking to Austria first. According to “Profil”, there was already a ready-made criminal complaint against Weiss for “favoring” (note: helping to escape) in the drawer of the local investigators. The problem: If investigations into a particular crime have been stopped in one European country, they cannot be continued into the same matter in another.
While Weiss was most recently in Dubai, where he is safe from the Austrian authorities’ access as there is no extradition agreement with the United Arab Emirates, the former BVT chief inspector Egisto Ott has been in custody for almost two weeks under suspicion of espionage Josefstadt Prison in custody. There would actually be a regular detention hearing next Monday, but Ott’s legal representative had waived it, according to an APA request from the Vienna regional court over the weekend.
Zadić in the Ö1 “Lunchtime Journal”
Justice Minister Alma Zadić (Greens) is in favor of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into Russia in order to ensure not only legal but also political clarification, as she said on Saturday in the Ö1 “Mittagsjournal”. When asked about Peter Pilz’s connections (on whose list Zadić had started her political career) to Ott, she said that she herself had never been in contact with the espionage suspect or his “comrades”. “You have to ask him yourself who Pilz has had contact with.”
Zadić appeared to be somewhat open to the monitoring of messenger services such as Whatsapp or Signal to avert danger, which the ÖVP has repeatedly called for. From their point of view, we can talk about it. However, the red line of a “federal trojan” drawn by the Constitutional Court must not be exceeded. From their point of view, there can be no such thing as installing malware and leaving security gaps on devices. The technical solution for this must come from the Ministry of the Interior.
- Video: Monitoring: Zadic appears willing to talk
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) welcomed this in a written statement. He announced that experts from both departments would work closely together to present a legal solution. “It’s about giving the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the criminal police the necessary powers to effectively combat espionage, terrorism and organized crime. While this federal government is working hard to ensure the security of the people in our country, the FPÖ has no interest in this effective protection of the constitution and a modern criminal police in Austria,” said the Interior Minister.
When it came to the question of the Attorney General as the future head of the judiciary, Zadić insisted on the three-member Senate that experts had called for. This is also a “red line,” the ÖVP told them. She will “not make any compromises to the detriment of our constitutional state and the judiciary” just to get a positive headline.
