BAT affair

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BVT is located in the Rennweg barracks in Vienna - Landstrasse

The BVT affair (also known as the BVT scandal and BVT case ) is the term used to describe politically controversial events involving the BVT intelligence service ( Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism ) in the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior since 2016. These include the issuing of North Korean passports for South Korean secret agents, conflicts between party networks close to the ÖVP within the BVT and the re- coloring of the constitutional protection by the then FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, which was accused by the parliamentary opposition . There was widespread media coverage after the task force led by Wolfgang Preiszler - an FPÖ municipal councilor - to fight street crime on behalf of the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office carried out a house search on the premises of the BVT and verifiably confiscated sensitive data. According to some media outlets, the BVT affair caused massive damage to the authority's reputation. Since autumn 2018, a parliamentary committee of inquiry decided by the SPÖ , NEOS and Liste Pilz has been devoting itself to the question of political responsibility in the cases that have become known.

background

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism was founded in 2002 under the black and blue federal government Schüssel I on the initiative of the then ÖVP interior minister Ernst Strasser . The director appointed for this was the FPÖ-affiliated official Gert-René Polli . In 2007 Peter Gridling was appointed head of the authority under Interior Minister Günther Platter . In the period from its founding in 2002 to the formation of the Federal Government Kurz I , the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was headed exclusively by interior ministers nominated by the ÖVP. Herbert Kickl took over the ministry in December 2017.

course

In the summer of 2017, a 39-page, anonymously written bundle had already reached various media in which alleged insiders made allegations against the BVT.

Research by the daily newspaper Der Standard and the weekly magazine Profil revealed in October 2017 that the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution had issued blank North Korean passports for South Korean spies.

At the end of January 2018, Peter Gridling was entrusted with the task of managing the BVT for a further five years by the recently sworn interior minister Herbert Kickl.

On February 28, 2018, the premises of the BVT and various private apartments of employees were searched by officers from the Task Force to Combat Street Crime (EGS). The reason for the house searches was an investigation by the Economic and Corruption Public Prosecutor's Office (WKStA) into alleged abuse of office. Due to these searches, the opposition SPÖ announced a special session of the National Council on March 9 ; there is a suspicion of party-politically motivated transgression of competencies. The fungal list then announced on March 17 to face a censure motion against the incumbent Interior Minister Herbert Kickl. The NEOS party wants to convene the National Security Council. After the searches, according to Secretary-General were Christian Pilnacek 19.1 Giga byte (GB) of data seized Service. However, new seizure protocols are supposed to show that at least 40,000 GB were seized in the BVT and three private apartments.

Presentation of the proposal for a parliamentary committee of inquiry on BAT on April 18, 2018

Based on the investigation, the SPÖ submitted an application for a parliamentary committee of inquiry . On March 22, 2018, the proposal was surprisingly rejected in the committee of the rules of procedure with the votes of the coalition parties ÖVP and FPÖ, after FPÖ Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache welcomed a committee of inquiry two days earlier. The rejection is based on an expert opinion, which was commissioned by the President of the National Council and former Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka . The subject of investigation of the application was delimited in terms of time, but not in terms of content. The deputy federal party chairman of the SPÖ Andreas Schieder announced that he would appeal to the constitutional court .

In the course of the investigation, Interior Minister Herbert Kickl is said to have withheld the reappointment of the head of the authorities Peter Gridling by the Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen , or later appointed him to head of the authorities and at the same time suspended him with immediate effect until further notice. Peter Gridling announced that he would take legal action against the suspension. On April 16, 2018, representatives of the three opposition parties represented in the National Council ( Kai Jan Krainer / SPÖ, Stephanie Krisper / NEOS, Alma Zadić / List Pilz) announced that they would submit a joint motion for a parliamentary committee of inquiry on the subject of BAT. This request was submitted on April 18, 2018.

On May 22, 2018, Peter Gridling's suspension was lifted.

Controversy

Allegations in pamphlets

The 39-page pamphlet sent out in autumn 2017, which contained unproven allegations against the BVT, was written anonymously by an alleged former employee of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. After research by the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard and the weekly magazine profil , this bundle was created to mislead. It primarily related allegations against the former head of cabinet of the interior ministers Strasser and Platter and the interior minister Liese Prokop , Philipp Ita. At the center of the allegations was a search for explosives at Ita's residence, which came about after repeated bomb threats on the 2016 tour of Austria past this location. According to the information in the pamphlet, neo-Nazi material was allegedly seized during this process , which the Interior Ministry then covered up. An employee of the police is said to have tried in vain to draw the attention of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism to these events. According to research by Standard and Profil with the police, organizers of the Tour of Austria and in social networks, there were no bomb threats against this sporting event. Nevertheless, the public prosecutor dealt with these allegations, but came to no conclusion.

In addition to this allegation, the 39-page bundle also contains a number of other allegations that could not be verified or turned out to be false, including sexual assault, sex parties on duty, money laundering and embezzlement. In the course of the investigation committee, the allegation of sexual assault was substantiated by a witness.

Passing on North Korean passports to South Korean authorities

In 2015, the North Korean regime ordered around 200,000 biometric passports from the Austrian State Printing Office, which was privatized in 2000 . In July of the same year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, then under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner , asked the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism to conduct a risk analysis due to the high number of passports ordered. About a year later, the state printing company handed 30 blank passports to the BVT, three of which were handed over to a South Korean intelligence service. A statement of the facts about this case was sent by the director of the BVT, Peter Gridling, to the director for public safety, Michaela Kardeis , in September of the following year. The Ministry of the Interior examined this case in autumn 2017 to no avail.

Retention of sensitive data

The Viennese lawyer Gabriel Lansky , who initiated an election platform for the former SPÖ Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer among others , was suspected of having worked for the Kazakh secret service in the case of Rachat Aliyev , which the BVT investigated. The proceedings were discontinued in March 2016. In 2017, Lansky received the anonymous 39-page letter that was circulated, including the allegation that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution continued to hold unauthorized data on this case and wanted to use it for party political purposes in the election campaign against the SPÖ. In March 2018, it became known that the public prosecutor's office for business and corruption was also investigating this and other data sets from the BVT to the ÖVP parliamentary club. Two employees of the parliamentary club of the People's Party were questioned. So far, this allegation has not been proven.

House search

The house search on February 28, 2018 took place on a report from the then new Secretary General in the Ministry of the Interior, Peter Goldgruber, and was justified with the allegations expressed in the 39-page bundle. The raid soon came under criticism from the parliamentary opposition, which was primarily directed at Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, Justice Minister Josef Moser , General Secretary in the Interior Ministry Peter Goldgruber and General Secretary in the Justice Ministry Christian Pilnacek .

On the orders of the public prosecutor's office for business and corruption, the task force to combat street crime, led by officer close to the FPÖ, Wolfgang Preiszler, searched the premises of the BVT. The police officers are said to have arrived armed and wearing storm masks. Following initial denials by the Ministry of Justice, large amounts of data relating to the BVT were also confiscated, including a list of undercover agents and information on investigations into the neo-Nazi scene. Data on the FPÖ-related platform unzensuriert.at , which was monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and was under the direction of the now specialist for operational communication in the Ministry of the Interior, Alexander Höferl , was also confiscated.

Exactly six months after the house search, on August 28, 2018, the Higher Regional Court of Vienna announced that several house searches were disproportionate. Apart from a house search in the private apartment of an accused, the court's decision qualified the house search in the BVT itself as well as further house searches in private apartments of the accused as illegal.

In October it became known that Interior Minister Herbert Kickl's Secretary General Peter Goldgruber had asked the BVT for internal details on the observation of fraternities after the songbook affairs became known . According to a memo that BVT boss Peter Gridling had made, Goldgruber wanted to know, among other things, which fraternities are undercover investigators. The answer is said to have been kept general, names were not mentioned. Opposition and the media critical of the government see a connection with the illegal house search in the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Numerous data carriers were confiscated from the office of the head of the extremism unit, including those relating to investigations into the right-wing extremist scene, although the public prosecutor's office had never listed her as a suspect in the BVT case. The Ministry of the Interior denies this interpretation, since Goldgruber's request was made to prepare for a meeting of the National Security Council, which the SPÖ had called on the subject of right-wing radicalism.

Freedom of the press

In November 2019 it became known that the Federal Office for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption tried on May 10, 2019 to have the mobile phone of Die Presse journalist Anna Thalhammer confiscated in order to identify her informants. The device of NEOS MP Stephanie Krisper should also be confiscated. The public prosecutor's office in Vienna rejected these requests at the beginning of July.

Consequences

At the end of May 2018, Interior Minister Herbert Kickl, together with Peter Gridling, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, who was briefly suspended by him, announced a realignment, a new era for the authority. As part of this, the division of competencies between the Federal Criminal Police Office and the BVT should be reorganized. According to Kickl, it is also planned to better integrate the protection of the Constitution into cooperation with other services, such as the Army Intelligence Office .

Because of the house search at BVT, during which sensitive data was taken, the BVT was to be suspended from the Berner Club , the European secret service network, which could initially be averted through "confidence-building measures". Among other things, the BVT withdrew from all working groups, but should have rejoined them in autumn 2018. Then, however, a paper from the Bern Club appeared in the Viennese city newspaper “ Falter ”. Because of this, the withdrawal was extended and is still valid today.

At the beginning of August 2019 a letter from Gridling to the BVT employees was announced, in which he asked for understanding for additional security measures and that "the loss of trust arose before Kickl".

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer appointed Franz Ruf as project manager for the reform of the BVT in February 2020 .

Web links

Commons : BAT Affair  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Souad Mekhennet: Austria's far-right ordered a raid on its own intelligence service. Now allies are freezing the country out. In: washingtonpost.com . August 17, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b Rainer Fleckl, Maria Kern, Stefan Melichar, Sebastian Reinhart: Causa BVT: A dubious data-things-report. In: addendum.org . May 5, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Fabian Schmid, Maria Sterkl: Austria handed South Korea North Korean passports. In: derstandard.at . October 27, 2017. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Many questions unanswered. In: orf.at . March 8, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  5. ↑ BVT affair: Motion of no confidence against Kickl. In: kurier.at . March 17, 2018, accessed April 6, 2018 .
  6. ↑ The police are said to have confiscated documents pertaining to right-wing extremists without authorization. In: zeit.de . March 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ Kid Möchel, Dominik Schreiber: BVT affair: at least 40,000 gigabytes secured. In: kurier.at. March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Strache has "no problem" with the secret service U-Committee. In: diepresse.com . March 21, 2018, accessed August 27, 2018 .
  9. ^ SPÖ angry, wants to call VfGH. In: orf.at . March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Black and blue blocks the SPÖ's U committee on the BVT affair. In: derstandard.at . March 23, 2018, accessed March 22, 2018 .
  11. ↑ BVT: SPÖ-U committee application rejected. In: kurier.at. March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Renate Graber, Maria Sterkl, Günther Oswald, Fabian Schmid: BVT affair: Gridling is being investigated because of Sigrid Maurer. In: derstandard.at. March 13, 2018, accessed March 15, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Fabian Schmid, Renate Graber, Maria Sterkl, Günther Oswald: State security was informed ahead of time of the investigation. In: derstandard.at. March 14, 2018, accessed March 15, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Joint proposal for the BVT-U Committee. In: news.orf.at . April 16, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018 .
  15. ^ Opposition submitted a motion for the BVT-U committee. In: news.orf.at. April 18, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018 .
  16. ↑ BVT boss Gridling no longer suspended. In: orf.at. May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Fabian Schmid, Maria Sterkl: From wrong tracks in the anonymous advertisements against the BVT. In: derstandard.at . March 18, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Fabian Schmid, Maria Sterkl: Anonymous ads: Fierce accusations against constitutional protection. In: derstandard.at. March 3, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  19. ^ Richard Schmitt: Secret Service: Sex photos and Nazi mail for colleague. In: krone.at . October 17, 2018, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Kid Möchel: Causa BVT: Chronology of a state operetta. In: kurier.at . March 13, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Fabian Schmid, Maria Sterkl: The current status of the BVT affair, explained as simply as possible. In: derstandard.at . May 13, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Michael Nikbakhsh: BVT affair reaches ÖVP parliamentary club. In: profile . March 26, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  23. ↑ Dominik Schreiber: BVT-Causa: Goldgruber's complaint triggered a raid. March 14, 2018, accessed August 20, 2018 .
  24. ^ Anna Thalhammer : The BVT house search was not lawful. August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
  25. ^ Explosive files from the Ministry of the Interior. In: falter.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  26. ↑ BVT: Goldgruber wanted information on fraternity investigations. In: kurier.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  27. ↑ BVT: Goldgruber wanted information on fraternity investigations. In: orf.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  28. ↑ BMI General Secretary Goldgruber wanted to know how BVT investigates fraternities. In: derstandard.at . October 2, 2018, accessed November 1, 2018.
  29. ↑ Fabian Schmid: Investigators also wanted access to journalists' cell phones . In: The Standard . November 15, 2015, p. 7 ( Online [accessed November 15, 2019]).
  30. ^ "An attack on the freedom of the press" . In: The press . November 15, 2015, p.  5 ( Online [accessed November 15, 2019]).
  31. ↑ Kickl wants to usher in the "new era". In: orf.at. May 29, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018 .
  32. ↑ Austria's secret service isolated internationally. vol.at , April 1, 2019, accessed on April 8, 2019 .
  33. ↑ Gridling: BVT continues to fight controversial reputation. In: DiePresse.com . August 1, 2019, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  34. ↑ BVT reform: Nehammer relies on the reputation of Salzburg. In: ORF.at . February 10, 2020, accessed February 10, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Marian Smetana: Salzburg police chief should reform BVT. In: Salzburger Nachrichten . February 10, 2020, accessed February 10, 2020 .