German prosecutors today charged a former aide to far-right German politician and member of the European Parliament (EP) Maximilian Krach with spying for Chinese intelligence.
Prosecutors in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said the former employee, as well as an accomplice, repeatedly passed information about negotiations and decisions made in the European Parliament to a Chinese intelligence agency, while at the same time spying on Chinese dissidents in Germany.
Krah was the leading candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in last year's European Parliament elections, but his campaign was marred by scandal.
The AfD was expelled from the right-wing Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament after Krach made highly controversial comments defending members of the Nazi SS paramilitary unit in an interview with an Italian newspaper. The party subsequently expelled him from its delegation to the European Parliament.
His former aide, identified as Jiang G., a German citizen, has been working for the Chinese secret service since 2002, according to a statement from the federal prosecutor. He was arrested in the eastern city of Dresden in April 2024 on charges of particularly serious espionage.
He reportedly received more than 500 documents, "including some that the European Parliament has categorized as particularly sensitive."
Shortly after the arrest, German authorities searched the offices of Jiang G. and Krah at the European Parliament in Brussels.
At the end of September, German criminal police arrested a Chinese woman who worked for a logistics provider at Leipzig/Halle Airport. She allegedly passed on information about flights, cargo and passengers at the German airport to Jiang G. - mainly the transport of military goods and people with ties to a German defense company.
The woman, who is currently in custody, is also suspected of spying for China.
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