With the exception of a few files, the data sets were completely unsealed and handed over to the WKStA. The WKStA confirmed the unsealing.
In August 2022, the WKStA ordered the data to be secured in the Federal Chancellery as part of the investigation into the so-called “leg scraping Austria tool”, in which tax money was allegedly used for turquoise party interests. This included data on email inboxes and personally assigned drives as well as eOffice documents from employees of the Federal Chancellery who worked under former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) between December 19, 2017 and October 6, 2021 in the area of public relations or in worked in the strategic communications department.
However, the Republic initially appealed against the security order. After the complaint was dismissed by the Vienna Higher Regional Court in September 2023, the WKStA was still unable to access the data handed over in June 2023. The Federal Chancellery had filed a so-called “objection” – on the grounds that, due to the enormous volume of data alone, it could not be ruled out that this data contained information that was particularly protected by law. As a result, the data was handed over by the WKStA to the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters.
During the internal audit at the Federal Chancellery with the involvement of the affected employees, five files were identified that were eligible for sealing. The court followed the argument and classified the files as protected after examining them on March 14, as court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn explained. The remaining files were sent to the WKStA. A spokeswoman for the WKStA confirmed to ORF that access to the seized data has been available for the first time since March 19th. According to a spokeswoman, the WKStA does not want to appeal against the court’s decision to close the five files.
