Former employee of AfD politician Krah charged with espionage

The Federal Prosecutor's Office has charged a former employee of AfD politician Maximilian Krah and a suspected accomplice with espionage for a Chinese intelligence agency. The man allegedly repeatedly leaked information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament and spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany for the intelligence agency. He also allegedly gathered information on leading AfD politicians.

According to the Karlsruhe authorities, Jian G., a German citizen of Chinese descent, has been an employee of a Chinese intelligence agency since 2002. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had him arrested in Dresden in April 2024. They accuse him of a particularly serious case of intelligence activity. He is alleged to have obtained more than 500 documents, "including some that the European Parliament had classified as particularly sensitive." In 2023 and 2024, the man allegedly spied on Chinese opposition figures and dissidents in Germany. To this end, he posed on social media as a fake critic of the Chinese leadership.

Shortly after the arrest, Germany's top prosecutor had G. and Krah's offices in the European Parliament in Brussels searched. They emphasized that the search of Krah's offices was "a measure taken in the presence of witnesses." The European Parliament had consented to entering the premises.

At the end of September, officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office, acting on behalf of the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Leipzig, arrested a Chinese woman who worked for a logistics services company at Leipzig/Halle Airport. She allegedly passed on information about flights, cargo, and passengers at the airport to the former Krah employee – primarily concerning the transport of military equipment and individuals with connections to a German defense company. The woman is also suspected of acting as an intelligence agent for a Chinese intelligence service. Both are in custody. The Dresden Higher Regional Court must now decide whether to accept the charges and schedule a trial.

After G.'s arrest, Krah told the Bild newspaper that, to his knowledge, his employee had only "maintained contact with official Chinese authorities in the embassy." After the Chinese woman's arrest, he stated via the short message service X that there was no connection to his activities. The accused had only communicated with his former employee. "The only reproach I have with myself in connection with my former employee of Chinese descent is that I didn't pay more attention."

On the same day as G., the Federal Prosecutor's Office arrested three other suspected spies for China in Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg. The two men and one woman are alleged to have obtained information about military technology in Germany in connection with research projects in order to pass it on to the Chinese intelligence service. China rejected the reports of its own spies in Germany and called them slander.

Meanwhile, then-Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) warned of further espionage cases. The cabinet also approved stricter security clearances to prevent saboteurs and informants from foreign intelligence services from gaining access to intelligence services and other security-relevant positions in government and business.

The amendment to the Security Clearance Act was not debated in the Bundestag before the early federal elections. Among other things, it provided for increased internet searches, including on social networks.

Over time, more information about Krah's former employee's background became known. G. had attempted to work for the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) several years ago. However, according to information from the German Press Agency, the foreign intelligence service declined to cooperate at the time. Later, the man reportedly also applied to the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution, but was also rejected there – partly because he was considered unreliable.