State security affair

Muslim Brother exposed as a spy in his own ranks

Huge excitement in the ranks of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN)(Bild: AFP)

Huge excitement in the ranks of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN): a temporarily assigned employee of the police intelligence service has been exposed as a spy! He is said to have passed on secret information to the radical Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

The exposed agent was observed for weeks and finally stopped after a meeting with the anti-constitutional group. Due to the dense chain of evidence, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution decided to suspend him immediately.

Office for the Protection of the Constitution emphasizes: "This is an isolated case"
The suspect reported for intelligence activities to the detriment of the Republic of Austria must now expect to be charged by the Vienna public prosecutor's office. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution emphasized to the "Krone" that this is an isolated case and that the internal control mechanisms work perfectly.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928. According to its ideology, there is no higher law than Islam.(Bild: Ralf - stock.adobe.com)

The accused has not been arrested, the public prosecutor's office added. And added: "However, he was ordered to be brought in for immediate questioning, which has already taken place." The man's home had also been searched and the evidence seized would now be analyzed as quickly as possible.

In recent months, the suspect is said to have made inquiries on several days without any specific official interest and without any official reason, each of which was related to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Die Wiener Anklagebehörde

The DSN has almost doubled its staff compared to the old BVT secret service. However, the exact number of employees working for the state security service is not disclosed for reasons of "national security".

Huge excitement in the ranks of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN)(Bild: AFP)

Muslim Brotherhood is considered an Islamist group
The Muslim Brotherhood, to which the accused is said to have links, is an Islamist group. Founded in Egypt, it now has branches in many countries and is considered to be very powerful. The structures are informal and the aim is to Islamize society. There are moderate currents within the Brotherhood, but the Palestinian terrorist militia Hamas also emerged from it.

FPÖ takes aim at Karner
For the FPÖ, the events are the "preliminary culmination of a chain of catastrophic failures". Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) is "increasingly turning out to be a minister of chaos in terms of security policy", according to Freedom Party security spokesman Gernot Darmann. He did not see an "isolated case": "There can be no question of functioning control mechanisms if an extremist can apparently tap into sensitive data unnoticed over a longer period of time."

Russian spy at OMV exposed
An employee of the Austrian oil, gas and chemicals group OMV was exposed as a spy for Russia at the end of September. DSN had been monitoring the man for months and OMV immediately parted company with him. The man attracted attention through meetings with a Russian diplomat, who is said to be an agent of the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB. Austria promptly declared the diplomat an "undesirable person" and forced him to leave the country. In revenge, Russia expelled an Austrian diplomat.