Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer ad On Tuesday that this December 1, the National Security and Intelligence Directorate (DSN, for its acronym in German), a new security service that replaces the previous institution, whose credit was compromised as a result of several scandals, will begin to carry out its activities. .
The new entity, led by Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, will observe a division between your two tasks. In this way, the national security unit will be in charge of preventing attacks and protecting the constitutional order, while the intelligence unit will collect information, analyze it and investigate possible threats. Haijawi-Pirchner stated that the advantage of this division is that employees can take care of their specific tasks instead of being forced to take care of both functions at the same time.
The National Security and Intelligence Directorate replaces the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT), which was found in the focus of a scandal due to accusations of abuse of power, corruption, embezzlement of taxpayers’ money, transmission of information and sexual harassment against its employees, they report local media. The allegations prompted searches of their offices and the homes of some employees in February 2018.
The multiple terrorist attack that on November 2, 2020, left several dead and injured in Vienna, aggravated the situation, since its author managed to communicate with other terrorists and buy ammunition, despite the fact that the BVT had information on the preparation of the attack.
