Secret Report Passed On? Charges Brought Against Peterlik

He is accused of having requested a report classified as "secret" on the nerve agent Novichok, among other things, without necessity as Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of having made internal documents accessible to the former police officer Egisto Ott.

Peterlik is said to have requested report on Novichok case

Specifically, Peterlik, who rose to Secretary General under the Freedom Party Foreign Minister Karin Kreissl, is said to have requested the report classified as secret by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on a poison attack in 2018, which also included the formula for the nerve agent Novichok. According to the public prosecutor's office, he knowingly abused his authority with the intent to harm the Republic of Austria's right to strict confidentiality.

The Novichok formula is said to have ended up with former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who boasted about it, as chats evaluated by the investigative authorities show. Marsalek has been on the run for years and is believed to have been working for the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB for some time. The fact that Marsalek came into possession of equally secret and particularly sensitive information set off alarm bells with the domestic state protection. "The unlawful transfer of sensitive and classified information and documents, which ultimately found their way to Jan Marsalek, massively sets Austria back in international cooperation and severely damages the reputation of our Republic," stated an internal paper that is part of the prosecutorial investigation file.

Transfer of documents to Ott

A direct link from Peterlik to Marsalek cannot be proven. According to the indictment, which has now been filed with the Regional Court for Criminal Matters and is not yet legally binding, Peterlik is said to have shown Egisto Ott several OPCW documents on the Novichok incidents in October 2018, which were accessible to him solely by virtue of his office. This is believed by the public prosecutor's office to have endangered the Republic of Austria's interest in complying with international legal obligations and in a trusting cooperation with international authorities.

Ott was recently charged with secret intelligence activities to the detriment of the Republic of Austria and abuse of office. The former chief inspector of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) is also said to have engaged in activities for the Russian intelligence service, which the former state protector, of course, denies.

One of the charges in the upcoming main trial - the indictment is final, but there is no trial date yet - against Egisto Ott and a co-accused IT specialist from the Directorate of State Protection and Intelligence Service (DSN), which replaced the BVT, concerns Peterlik. Ott is said to have provided him with personal data of BVT officers who were associated with the creation of the Ibiza video. At that time, Peterlik was Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the then FPÖ-nominated Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl.

Peterlik initially worked for ÖVP, later for FPÖ

However, Peterlik began with the ÖVP. From 1995 to 2004, he was the press spokesman for Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and after an intermezzo as ambassador in Asia, he served as chief of staff for Family Minister Sophie Karmasin from December 2013 to August 2015. After his time as Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peterlik was ambassador to Indonesia, but was suspended and recalled at the end of 2021 when it became known that the Federal Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Corruption Control (BAK) had launched investigations against Peterlik.

Peterlik is said to have generally had a good conversational climate with Ott and repeatedly asked for favors. For instance, he asked Ott to intervene with a senior police officer to obtain a gun permit. Peterlik - then Secretary General in the Foreign Office - also turned to Ott when Austrian journalist Max Zirngast was arrested in Turkey in September 2018. He asked Ott to find out if Zirngast was an "agitator." Ott reported shortly thereafter that the Turkish intelligence service MIT was investigating Zirngast.

However, these incidents are not part of the current indictment and are unlikely to cause further trouble for Peterlik. As Nina Bussek, spokeswoman for the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office, explained in response to an APA inquiry on Thursday afternoon, there are no further open investigations regarding his contacts with Ott. "These are concluded," said Bussek. The penalty threat in the upcoming main trial against Peterlik ranges from six months to five years imprisonment. If Peterlik does not contest the indictment within 14 days, it becomes final. A trial could then be expected in the first half of 2026.

Greens want Russia inquiry committee

For the Greens, the indictment is an occasion to criticize the past government participation of the Freedom Party. "The Peterlik case confirms what we already pointed out in the inquiry committee on the red-blue abuse of power last year: FPÖ-led ministries were at the center of the biggest espionage scandal of the Second Republic," said foreign policy spokeswoman Meri Disoski in a statement. She called for a separate Russia inquiry committee. Disoski also announced a parliamentary inquiry to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is intended to focus on Peterlik's activities and any potential security gaps that may have arisen.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.