In Austria, head of Federal Office for Protection of Constitution and fight against terrorism (BAT), Peter Gridling, has been suspended from office. In case of Austrian Intelligence Service, re may have been violations of service Law, said Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPOe). He sees prestige of office at risk, so suspension is “unfortunate but inevitable”.
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Currently, several employees of bat are accused of not having deleted sensitive data – Among accused is also gridling. In course of investigation, Public Prosecutor’s Office had already initiated a search for bat last week. In doing so, police have been illegally seizing investigation results on right-wing extremists – Ministry of Justice rejected accusation.
At request of SPÖ, National Council will now deal with incidents surrounding bat in a special session. The opposition suspects right-wing populist fpoe of wanting to gain more influence on office. It was questionable to what extent interior minister had been involved in “criminalisation” of bat chief, it was said by Liberal NEOs. Kickl rejected accusations of an influence on investigation.
Founded in 2002, Bat is one of three news services in Austria. It mainly analyses threat posed by extremist currents such as Islamism and right-wing extremism.
