exclusive
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has the offices of AfD MEP Krah in Brussels searched. The measure is related to the espionage allegations against one of Krah’s employees.
Two weeks ago, Jian G. was arrested in Dresden. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses the 43-year-old of having spied for a Chinese secret service. G’s apartment in Dresden was searched. Today, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office is having offices in the European Parliament in Brussels searched as part of the investigation.
According to information from ARD capital studio, ARD contrasts and SWR around the offices of Maximilian Krah and his employee G. The approval of the European Parliament was first obtained this morning.
Don’t brag about the accused
Krah hired G. as an assistant after he entered the European Parliament for the AfD in 2019. After the espionage allegations against his employee became known two weeks ago, he announced that he wanted to fire G..
The investigation is still only directed against G., Krah himself is not considered a suspect, but rather a witness. The aim of the search in Brussels is apparently to find further incriminating evidence against G.
Information passed on to China?
The Federal Prosecutor General accuses G. of two different facts. On the one hand, he is said to have spied on Chinese dissidents in Germany. And he is said to have transmitted information from the European Parliament to a Chinese secret service.
The 43-year-old came to Germany from China in 2002 and initially studied at the Technical University in Dresden. In the following years he worked as a businessman before becoming an employee of Krah. At the same time, he became involved in Chinese dissident organizations, presumably with the aim of spying on them. G. is now a German citizen.
informant of protection of the constitution
How ARD capital studio, ARD contrasts and SWR Reportedly, G. is also said to have offered himself as a source to the Federal Intelligence Service. However, the BND is said to have refused and referred G. to the Saxon State Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He is said to have been an informant there from 2007 to 2018. The Bild newspaper first reported on this.
Accordingly, he was “switched off” in 2018 – at least a year before he started at Krah. The Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster emphasized in the Saxon state parliament that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had ended its cooperation with G. “well before possible connections to the AfD”. G. is currently a member of the AfD. He has been in custody since his arrest.