Austrian Court Convicts Former Intelligence Officer of Spying for Russia

A Vienna jury found a former Austrian intelligence official guilty of spying for Russia and sentenced him to four years and one month in prison. The court also convicted the 63-year-old of misuse of office, bribery, aggravated fraud and breach of trust.

Prosecutors said he collected secret facts and personal data from police databases between 2015 and 2020 and passed the material to Russian intelligence officers and a fugitive executive of the collapsed German payments firm Wirecard.

The court heard that the official obtained work phones belonging to senior Austrian interior ministry officials after they fell into the River Danube during a ministry boating trip. He copied their contents and passed the data to the recipients, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also told the court that the official was commissioned to obtain a laptop containing secret electronic security hardware used by EU states and handed it over to Russian intelligence. The former official denied the charges. He said he had not worked for Russia but had carried out a covert operation with a Western intelligence service.

His lawyer has appealed the verdict.

Background The case has drawn attention to the activities of the fugitive executive, who is wanted by German police for alleged fraud and is believed to be in Moscow. The executive is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. When the former official was arrested in 2024, Austria's then Chancellor described the case as a threat to democracy and national security.