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Russian official detained in Austria for espionage in GermanyOn 11 June 2007 the alleged secret agent, named in the Austrian media as Vladimir V. Vozhzhov, was arrested in Gmunden near Salzburg in Upper Austria. Austrian police officers arrested Vozhzhov around 7:00 p.m. They confiscated ?13,000 ($17,483), two CD-ROMs and one USB flash drive. The police officers took him to Vienna's Josefstadt prison along with an Austrian military officer thought to have cooperated with Moscow. Vozhzhov was suspected of attempting to obtain technical details of the Franco-German military helicopter project Eurocopter Tiger. However, on June 25 Austrian authorities were forced to release Vozhzhov after the United Nations decided that he had diplomatic immunity. Following his release Vozhzhov went to the Russian Embassy in Vienna. A spokesperson for the Embassy announced that he would leave for Moscow “in the near future”. Russia was incensed by Vozhzhov’s arrest and demanded his immediate release. It also made it clear that his arrest would damage relations between the two countries. “The behaviour of the Austrian side is seen as an unfriendly act,” the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The Austrian Ambassador in Moscow Martin Vukovich was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hear Russia’s protest. After Vozhzhov’s arrest, the United Nations and the Austrian Foreign Ministry investigated whether the official did in fact enjoy the diplomatic immunity that Russia asserted on his behalf. The UN subsequently confirmed that Vozhzhov enjoyed diplomatic immunity because he was accredited to the Russian delegation to the 50th session of the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in Vienna between 6 and 15 June. When Moscow formally turned down a request from Austria to waive his diplomatic immunity, Austria had no option but to release him. A warrant officer in the Austrian Air Force Harald S., 51, of the 3rd Air Regiment stationed in Hörsching near Linz has also been arrested in connection with the case. He was reported to be technician who works closely with civilian firms in Germany. He was alleged to have supplied the Russians with data on the electronic development of the Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter project. Austrian investigators are working on the assumption that Vozhzhov was one of the top agents of the Russian military intelligence organisation the GRU. Both Vozhzhov and Harald S. are thought to have been shadowed by counter-intelligence agents for several months before the arrests. On March 3, 2011 Harald S. has been convicted of spying for the Russian secret service, handing over secret information on military and civilian helicopters. The court has sentenced him to a one-year suspended prison term. A court in Munich handed down a one-year suspended prison sentence to Harald S. for providing the Russian secret service with secret information on a subsidiary of defense giant EADS. Harald Alois S. admitted during the trial to working for the Russian secret service from 1997 to 2002. He paid an engineer at Eurocopter, owned by EADS, for handbooks and other documents relating to military and civilian helicopters and handed them to a Russian intermediary. The court's decision said Russia's goals were to obtain militarily useful information from Eurocopter. Chief among the vehicles of interest was the Tiger attack helicopter. The Harold S.'s defense lawyer had argued for a one-year suspended prison sentence while prosecutors asked for a 15-month suspended term. The Eurocopter employee was arrested in 2007 and received an 11-month suspended prison sentence the following year. His cooperation with investigators led to the arrest of Harald S., who also went to court in Austria claiming the statute of limitations had expired. Harald S. himself initiated his trial in Germany, which, along with his confession, the court regarded as mitigating circumstances. Sources:
Agentura.Ru March 16, 2011 |
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