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Retired Austrian colonel suspected of spying for Russia denies leaking secrets

Earlier, the Salzburg District Court’s refused to arrest him, which was followed by an appeal from the prosecution office

© EPA-EFE/LISI NIESNER

VIENNA, November 14. /TASS/. Retired Austrian army colonel, whom Vienna suspects of spying for Moscow, has rebuffed the claims that he is a spy, stressing that he did not disclose state secrets to the detriment of the country, his lawyer Michael Hofer told ORF-2 TV channel.

"He says that he has never leaked Austrian state secrets or similar data. He considers himself as a true Austrian, a patriot and that he would never do that to the detriment of his motherland Austria," Hofer said.

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Court refuses to arrest Austrian colonel suspected of spying for Russia

On Monday, the Salzburg prosecution office filed an appeal against the Salzburg District Court’s refusal to arrest the retired colonel, suspected of spying for Russia. Earlier, the court rejected the prosecutor’s motion to arrest the man. According to court sources, the judge decided to reject the arrest warrant request as the suspect had been aware of the investigation for quite a while and had not tried to flee.

Nevertheless, the court ordered the colonel to surrender his international passport and report to his local police station every day. The man had been in custody since Saturday and was released on Tuesday based on a court decision.

On November 9, Austria’s authorities said that the country’s law enforcement agencies were conducting an investigation against a 70-year-old retired Austrian army colonel, who was suspected of working for Russian intelligence since the 1990s and providing Moscow with information about Austria’s air force, artillery systems, high-ranking officials and the migrant crisis.

According to the Salzburg prosecution, following a series of questionings, investigators came to the conclusion that the retired colonel was to be charged under two articles of the Austrian Criminal Code, which concern inflicting damage on Austria by working for another country’s intelligence agency and disclosing state secrets, as well as under a military criminal law related to the deliberate disclosure of military secrets. The crimes could be committed between 1992 and 2018. If the man is found guilty, he faces up to ten years in jail.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out he was unpleasantly surprised at Vienna’s failure to ask Moscow to shed some light on those allegations. Austrian President and Commander in Chief Alexander Van der Bellen warned against stirring up tensions and called on the sides to wait until the investigation ended. The president noted that the spy scandal could not seriously harm Austrian-Russian cooperation in the long run.

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