“I will fire the employee in question today”, said the leader of the German far right (Afd) in the next European elections, Maximilian Krahcommenting on thearrest for espionage for China by his assistant Jian Guo. But now it turns out that the Dresden Prosecutor’s Office he started two preliminary investigationsfor suspicions of Russian and Chinese financing, precisely towards Krah. This was reported by a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office in the eastern German city.
Specifically, Krah is accused of corruption of parliamentarians through alleged payments from Russian and Chinese sources. Preliminary investigations are currently being conducted solely to examine “whether there is a first suspicion of criminal behavior due to corruption of a deputy”. “The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated, on 18 April 2024, preliminary proceedings against the Member of the European Parliament, Dr. Maximilian Krah, based on recent public news, in relation to alleged Russian payments for his work as a deputy“, is stated in a statement from the judiciary published on the newspaper’s website Bild. Furthermore, a second preliminary proceeding was initiated in relation to alleged Chinese payments for his activity as a deputy”. The investigations, specifies the prosecutor’s office, “they are not connected to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office proceedings regarding alleged espionage activities” by Jian Guo.
Bild recalls that “rumors have been circulating for weeks about Krah’s involvement in one Kremlin network dismantled in Czech Republic: there, politicians from six EU states would have received bribes, presumably for pro-Russia and anti-Ukraine propaganda. Among these also the European candidate of the AfD, Petr Bystron (51 years old, second on the list after Krah for the AfD in the European elections). Preliminary investigations are underway in Munich against Bystron and there are apparently audio and video recordings against him, including regarding the receipt of Kremlin money.”
Shortly before the news of the investigation was released, the current MEP Maximilian Krah announced that he would avoid taking part in the AfD election campaign launch event on Saturday, organized in a town in Baden-Württemberg. The party leadership had also confirmed that it would not broadcast the video electoral already produced by the candidate and his would not have been there either posters. “The election campaign will now obviously be overshadowed by this issue,” Krah himself declared in the statement made in Berlin in front of cameras reporting the result of the “very friendly, constructive, but seriously appropriate conversation” with the two party presidents, Alice Weidel And Tino Chrupalla. “If you now think that this is the end of my candidacy then I must disappoint you. I am and remain the leading candidate“, he assured.
His assistant, Jian Guo, was arrested on Monday 22 April in Dresden and is defined as “collaborator of a Chinese secret service“: has been suspended by the European Parliament with immediate effect. Three other German citizens had been arrested on the same charge: espionage for Chinese intelligence. They are suspected of having supplied it to Chinese intelligence sensitive technologies which could be used for military purposes. Beijing reacted by denying everything: according to the Foreign Ministry it is an operation aimed at “defaming and repressing” China and “destroying the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe”.
 is under investigation for suspected Russian and Chinese financing. His assistant was arrested on Monday){kind=link}