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SP� MP admits contact with Kazakh secret-service member

By David Rogers

Social Democrat (SP�) MP Anton Gaal has admitted to arranging a meeting between an Austrian detective and a member of the Kazakh secret service as a special government commission is to investigate claims Austrian politicians and journalists have been in the pay of the Kazakh secret service.

Gaal, a former SP� military spokesman and current chairman of parliament�s military-complaint commission, said on ORF TV yesterday (Tues) evening he had arranged a meeting between the detective, a former Austrian military official, and Kazakh Ildar A. at a Vienna tavern.

Gaal said he had not been "directly present" at their meeting and had instead been talking to a waiter at the time. He also denied he had ever been in contact with the Kazakh embassy in Vienna or the Kazakh secret service. He also denied a report in service and dismissed a report that he had talked with Ildar A. 95 times by phone as "complete nonsense."
He said though that Ildar A. had called him two or three times over a period of one week to discuss the possible purchase of a house and then called him again some time later. The Kazakh had also discussed his family�s security with him in his capacity as president of the civil-defence association, Gaal said, and after that he arranged the meeting with his "old friend" the detective.

Gaal also admitted that Ildar A. had raised the issue of Kazakhstan and former Kazakh Ambassador to Austria Rakhat Aliyev, who has been granted political asylum by the Austrian government. When the office for protection of the constitution and the fight against terrorism informed him that Ildar A. was under observation, Gaal added, he broke off contact with him.

The SP� military spokesman claimed he had not accepted money from anyone and had done nothing wrong and had no intention of resigning from his position of committee chairman.

A special investigative committee - headed by former People�s Party (�VP) Economy Minister Martin Bartenstein � was recently set up after rumours that a number of Austrian politicians and journalists have taken money from the Kazakh secret service.

The committee is to investigate allegations that Freedom Party (FP�) MP Harald Vilimsky has had ties to the Kazakh secret service and that Green MP Karl �llinger spied on its members with the help of the police. They are also probing claims that the public prosecutor�s office took measures against Green MP Peter Pilz and Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZ�) MP Peter Westenthaler without first seeking the lifting of their parliamentary immunity and Westenthaler�s mobile phone had been tapped as well as questions over the possible provision of information to BZ� MP Ewald Stadler and BZ� MP Herbert Scheibner by the defence ministry�s internal-security office.

The special committee is expected to also look into whether the police had former chief of the Federal Crime Office Herwig Haidinger under surveillance after he alleged last year there had been irregularities at the interior ministry.

Austrian Times

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parliament Ildar chairman police meeting ministry security committee Vienna Gaal Kazakh Austrian detective commission politicians journalists money Westenthaler government defence

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