Gridling spills the beans

Former boss on BVT scandal: “Not without Kickl’s knowledge”

Peter Gridling was suspended from the BVT in 2018.

(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT, APA/HELMUT FOHRINGER, BVT, krone.at-Grafik)

What Peter Gridling is currently experiencing is belated satisfaction: since the espionage affair broke, the former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) has been a sought-after interview partner, as he worked with the suspected Russian spies Martin Weiss and Egisto Ott for years and was even a victim of their espionage. In the "Krone" podcast "Superwahljahr", Gridling talks to the interview duo Rainer Nowak and Ida Metzger about former friends, espionage and the house search at the BVT.

Interior Minister Herbert Kickl suspended Gridling in 2018 after the house search at the BVT. This was lifted, but Gridling did not return to his job after the BVT was dismantled and instead retired. The explosive details that have come to light in the espionage affair surrounding the two ex-BVT officials Egisto Ott and Martin Weiss allow a completely new interpretation of the raid at the BVT in February 2018.

"Krone" podcast: Super electionyear
In the "Krone" podcast "Super election year", Gridling tells the interview duo Rainer Nowak and Ida Metzger how his former colleague and friend Martin Weiss turned the wrong way out of disappointment and became a Russian spy. How it can be that the alleged Wirecard billion-dollar fraudster Jan Marsalek was apparently able to spy for the Russian FSB undetected for years. And how he sees the house search at the BVT today.

"A mockery, how justice went to itsknees"
On this point, Gridling is not sparing with accusations towards the judiciary and Herbert Kickl. He speaks of a "mockery" and of how the judiciary - specifically the WKStA - "bowed to the wishes of the Ministry of the Interior" and obtained permission for the house search in a "night and fog operation". As Peter Goldgruber, then Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior, actively organized the witnesses for the WKStA, Gridling cannot imagine that the then Minister of the Interior, Herbert Kickl, was ignorant.

In the "Krone" podcast "Superwahljahr", Gridling says: "The driving force behind the story was the Secretary General of the Minister of the Interior. I assume that everything did not happen without the knowledge of the Minister of the Interior. Goldgruber sought contact with the WKStA. There was a strong involvement of the political top of the Ministry of the Interior".

Incidentally, one of the witnesses Goldgruber organized was the alleged spy Martin Weiss, then head of department at the BVT. He confirmed the allegations described in the pamphlet - he may even have been the author of the pamphlet that got everything rolling.