The Salzburg Regional Court has sentenced a retired colonel of the Austrian Armed Forces to three years in prison on espionage charges, the court's spokesman Peter Egger said on Tuesday.
"The court sentenced [the accused] to three years for disclosing state secrets", Egger said.
The court later released him, taking into account the time he spent in a pretrial detention centre.
"The court ruled that out of the three years, the convict only needs to serve half, and after that he may be released on parole. One and a half years he served in the pretrial detention centre were counted. So he was released. This decision is due to the fact that he no longer poses a threat", according to Egger.
On 8 November 2019, the Salzburg prosecutor's office indicted the ex-colonel on charges of engaging in intelligence activities for at least 25 years, working for a secret intelligence service to the detriment of Austria, and divulging state and military secrets.
Austrian investigators believe that the colonel was recruited by Igor Zaitsev, a high-ranking Russian military intelligence officer, and Vienna has issued an international arrest warrant for him. Moscow has denied Zaitsev's involvement in espionage.
Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen urged not to dramatise the situation. Kurz then said that Vienna was aimed at dialogue with Russia and this would not change in the future, but suspicions of intelligence activities would always be criticised.
