Another arrest for espionage in Germany. This time he is a collaborator of the leader in the European elections of the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (Afd), accused of espionage in favor of China.
The news of the arrest, carried out on Monday in Dresden, of a “German citizen” (as Spiegel writes, originally from China) referred to as “Jian G.” and defined as “collaborator of a Chinese secret service” was communicated by the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The local press has specified that he is an employee of the AfD MEP Maximilian Krah, as the DPA agency writes.
Jian G. is attributed to “acting as an agent for a foreign secret service in a particularly serious case”, reads a note from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The man “has been working for a German member of the European Parliament since 2019. In January 2024, the defendant repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament to his intelligence agent. Furthermore, he spied on Chinese opponents in Germany for the secret service.”
In the meantime, there has been no lack of response from Beijing, which defines the accusation of espionage as part of an operation aimed “to defame and repress” China. The German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, instead defined the case as an attack launched “on European democracy” from “within”.
The AfD for its part has expressed concern: “The news regarding the arrest of a collaborator of Maximilian Krah on suspicion of espionage is very worrying.”
Tags: collaborator AfD MEP spy
