An Austrian court on Wednesday acquitted former high-ranking diplomat Johannes Peterlik, who was accused of leaking confidential documents related to the Novichok poisoning of Sergei Skripal in England in March 2018. The judgment is not yet final, TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency. According to the prosecutor’s office, Peterlik “knowingly abused his authority with the intention of damaging Austria’s right to strict confidentiality,” and after the sentencing, it announced that it would appeal the court’s acquittal.
Peterlik has worked at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1994, he was also the spokesman for Minister Benita Ferrerová-Waldner. From 2018 to 2020, he was Secretary General of the Ministry, the highest civilian position in Austrian diplomacy. In October 2018, he requested “without official necessity” a classified report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) containing the formula for Novichok, a nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
The OPCW report also included information on the March 2018 poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. According to the British government and investigators, it was carried out by agents of the Russian GRU Alexander Petrov (Alexander Miškin) and Ruslan Boshirov (Anatolij Čepiga), who were also involved in the attack on the ammunition warehouse in the Czech Vrběticy. According to the Austrian prosecutor’s office, Peterlik provided some of the OPCW documents to former Austrian intelligence officer Egist Otto, who was later accused of spying for Russia.
