A parliamentary assistant of far-right AfD's prominent figure Maximilian Krah has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German authorities said on Tuesday.
The suspect, named only as Jian G., was working for the AfD lawmaker Krah as an assistant at the European Parliament since 2019, public broadcaster ARD reported, citing investigators.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office said the suspect under arrest is believed to be "an employee of a Chinese secret service" and was accused of carrying out espionage activities at the European Parliament.
"In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client. He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service," the prosecutors said in a statement.
Jian G. was arrested in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday, and the police carried out searches in the suspect's home, seizing various documents and electronic devices, according to local media reports.
Public broadcaster ARD reported that the suspect was known to German intelligence agencies for more than a decade for his suspected ties to the Chinese secret service.
According to investigators, he offered himself up as an informant but there has been no cooperation with him, as German intelligence agencies considered him "unreliable" and thought that he might be a possible "double agent" working for China.
Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the allegations were "extremely serious" and would be fully investigated by the relevant state authorities.
She also thanked security services, and said they have stepped up their counter-intelligence investigations amid changing security environment.
"This is how we protect ourselves against Russia's hybrid threats, but also against espionage from China. The recent investigative achievements show this," she said.
