Austria\u2019s justice minister said Thursday that she plans to tighten the country\u2019s rules on espionage, which currently is explicitly banned if directed against Austria itself but not if it targets other countries or international organisations. Justice Minister Alma Zadic\u2019s push to tighten Austria\u2019s laws comes as the arrest of a former Austrian intelligence officer on allegations of spying for Russia focuses attention on espionage activities in the country.<\/p>\n
Austria is a European Union member that has a policy of military neutrality. Its capital, Vienna, is host to several UN agencies and other international groups such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC. Austria\u2019s criminal code currently states that anyone who \u201csets up or operates a secret intelligence service to the detriment of the Republic of Austria or supports such an intelligence service in whatever way\u201d faces a prison sentence of between six months and five years. It also bans setting up, operating or supporting a \u201cmilitary intelligence service\u201d for \u201ca foreign power or a supra- or international body,\u201d which can carry a prison sentence of up to two years.<\/p>\n
Zadic said in a statement to the Austria Press Agency that the country has long been accused of being an \u201cisland of the blessed\u201d for intelligence services from around the world and lamented that \u201cgaps in the law so far have allowed foreign intelligence services to spy with impunity in Austria.\u201d \u201cWe want to expand the espionage paragraphs so that, in the future, our law enforcement authorities can also act against foreign spies when they are not targeting Austria itself, but international organisations based here such as the UN or friendly states,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Zadic is a member of the junior party in Chancellor Karl Nehammer\u2019s governing coalition, the Greens. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, a member of Nehammer\u2019s Austrian People\u2019s Party, told Oe1 radio he sees the need for tougher penalties for spying \u2013 but also renewed a call for authorities to be allowed to eavesdrop on calls via messenger services, something the Greens have balked at.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austria\u2019s justice minister said Thursday that she plans to tighten the country\u2019s rules on espionage, which currently is explicitly banned\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":38575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[12463,893,12469,12467,715,726,12468,928,12465,12464,4834,12466,6517,344],"class_list":["post-38574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-austria","tag-ban","tag-chancellor-karl-nehammer","tag-criminal-activity","tag-espionage","tag-eu","tag-foreign-powers","tag-intelligence","tag-international-organizations","tag-justice-minister-alma-zadic","tag-opec","tag-osce","tag-targets","tag-un"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}