A co-worker of an MEP from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was detained in Dresden on charges of espionage for China, the media reported on Tuesday, based on sources in the German security services. The man is accused of transmitting information from the European Parliament, the prosecutor general said. The European Parliament suspended the assistant.
According to media findings, the suspect is an employee of Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Maximilian Kraha.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser described espionage allegations against an employee of one of the MEPs as “extremely serious.” “If it is confirmed that espionage for China was carried out in the European Parliament, it is an attack from within on European democracy,” Faeser said, quoted by dpa.
“The person who employs such an employee is also responsible,” emphasized the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, adding that the matter should be thoroughly investigated.
According to information from ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, RBB and SWR, Jian G., who has German citizenship, was detained on the night from Monday to Tuesday.
Meida say that G. works as Kraha’s assistant and lives in Brussels and Dresden. According to them, investigators suspect that in this role he passed on information about negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), and also spied on Chinese oppositionists in Germany.
G. has been a German citizen for several years, but he has Chinese roots. He came to Dresden as a student in 2002.
Last year, the t-online news portal was the first to report on Krah’s suspicious connections with China, as well as on his assistant G. and the establishment of companies and associations linked to China.
When Krah was elected to the European Parliament on behalf of the AfD in 2019, he hired G. as his assistant – recalls ARD.
This is the second arrest in Germany within 24 hours, which may be related to the activities of secret service agents for China. On Monday, two men and a woman were detained on suspicion of contacts with the Chinese secret services and espionage for China. According to ARD, “these two cases are apparently unrelated.”
Source: PAP, Niezalezna.pl
