Wien – Rund um die angliche Spionagetätigkeit von Helmut Zilk, hat es gestern Abend in der ORF-Sendung “Im Zentrum” heftige Diskussionen gegeben. Laut “profil”-Chefredakteur Herbert Lackner soll sich Zilk rund 60 Mal mit Agenten des Geheimdienstes der damals kommunistischen Tschechoslowakei getroffen und dabei auch Geld angenommen haben. Was hier gemacht werde, sei “schmutziger Journalismus”, attackierte die Witwe des im Vorjahr verstorbenen ehemaligen Wiener Bürgermeisters, Dagmar Koller, die Journalisten. Quelle: APA
Vienna Mayor Helmut Zilk was Czechoslovak secret police collaborator
Helmut Zilk was Mayor of Vienna from 1984 to 1994. In December 1993 he was severely injured when he opened a letter bomb which had been sent to him by Franz Fuchs. Zilk died on October 24, 2008 of heart failure
In October 1998, the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung accused Helmut Zilk of having collaborated with Czechoslovak secret police during the 1960s. He denied the accusations.
In 2009, the Czechoslovak secret police documents on Zilk were made public. These documents record 58 meetings between Zilk and secret police agents during 1965-68. Zilk had provided information about the political situation in Austria and assessment of individual Austrian politicians; for this he was paid in money and goods like Bohemian crystal glass. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia (August 1968) Ladislav Bittman, one of the agents in contact with Zilk, ran to the West and leaked information about him. Some Czech media speculated that the continued political and journalistic career of Zilk, in spite of being uncovered, was due to some other secret service recruiting and supporting him.