Austrian court acquits ex-official Johannes Peterlik over Novichok document leak

By Gavin Blackburn Published on 22/04/2026 - 18:25 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

Prosecutors had accused Peterlik of requesting "without official necessity" a classified report in 2018 that included the formula for Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union.

An Austrian court acquitted a former senior official on Wednesday that prosecutors had accused of leaking confidential documents linked to the 2018 Novichok poisoning of a former Russian double agent in the UK.

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Johannes Peterlik was the foreign ministry's highest-ranking civil servant between 2018 and 2020.

In October 2025 he was charged with "abuse of official authority and breach of confidentiality."

But the Vienna criminal court acquitted him, a court spokesman told the AFP news agency. The prosecution said they would appeal the verdict, he added.

Prosecutors had accused Peterlik of requesting "without official necessity" a classified report in October 2018 that included the formula for Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The report, by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), contained information about the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in March 2018.

Prosecutors argued that Peterlik had showed several OPCW documents to Egisto Ott, an Austrian former intelligence official.

Ott is currently standing trial on a slew of charges that include handing over sensitive devices and selling secret information to Russia.

Ott, who denies all the charges against him, is also accused of having passed secret information for years to Jan Marsalek, the former chief operating officer of Germany's collapsed payment processing firm Wirecard.

Marsalek is himself wanted for fraud but, according to an international media investigation published last year by the Austrian daily Der Standard and other outlets, he now lives under a false identity in Moscow.

Marsalek, who is suspected of working for Russia's intelligence services, reportedly attempted to impress business associates by showing them documents containing the recipe for Novichok.

The Austrian is also reported to have had internal OPCW documents about its investigation into the poisoning.

Austria has been repeatedly hit by Russian spying scandals in recent years, tainting the reputation of the country, which is an EU member state but is not in NATO.

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• Novichok
• Soviet Union
• Russia
• Sergei Skripal
• Salisbury
• Austria