An officer of the Armed Forces of Austria, who is suspected of having transferred secret information to Russia for over 20 years and for which he received hundreds of thousands of euros, was released. This decision was made by the Land Court of Salzburg, refusing to satisfy the petition of the prosecutor's office to arrest the retired colonel of the Austrian army.. Reports the Kronen Zeitung edition on Tuesday, November 13. According to the court, the 70-year-old man was released due to the absence of the danger of escaping or committing a crime.. Earlier on Monday, the prosecutor's office of Salzburg petitioned for the arrest of the retired colonel and his placement in the detention center because of his possible escape and the severity of the charges.. The pensioner was detained by the Austrian police on Saturday, November 10, and was still under temporary detention. On November 9, the authorities of the Republic reported that they were investigating a 70-year-old retired colonel, whom the Defense Ministry suspects in transmitting data on Austrian military aviation, artillery systems, top officials and the migration crisis to the Russian military intelligence over the past 20 years.

The man is suspected of crimes under two articles of the Austrian criminal code: on intelligence work to the detriment of the state and on the disclosure of state secrets, as well as on one article of the military criminal law on the deliberate disclosure of military secrets. The investigation believes that he could carry out all the wrongful acts from 1992 to 2018. The media reported that for all this period, "mole" was already.

€ 300 thousand. If suspicion is confirmed, the defendant faces up to 10 years in prison.