German MEP Maximilian Krah’s Brussels offices have been searched by the police at the behest of the German Federal Attorney General.
German investigators are investigating Krah’s former assistant, Jian G, who is accused of spying for China.
In an official press statement, the German prosecutor said the raid was undertaken “on the basis of decisions of the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice and a European Investigation Order”.
Krah, who has parliamentary immunity, is not charged with anything and investigators consider him a witness, German news outlet Die Zeit reported.
The MEP, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party’s top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections in June, took to X regarding the incident.
“My ex-employee’s office in Brussels was searched today,” he wrote. “This was to be expected after his arrest and is therefore not at all surprising.
“The only remarkable thing is that they took so long to do it. Neither I nor other employees are affected.”
The raid took place in the Altiero-Spinelli building and was executed with the required consent of the European Parliament. Officials searched the offices that Krah and Jian G had shared until recently.
Jian G is accused of repeatedly providing information about negotiations and decisions in the EP to his intelligence-service handler and of conducting espionage on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, both at the behest of Chinese intelligence, the Prosecutor’s Office alleged.
The accusations have been used in the German press and politics to try to negatively associate the AfD with China and discredit the party and Krah.
A few days ago, it was revealed that German intelligence services had suspected Jian G of being a Chinese spy for years but Saxony’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution decided not to inform Krah about this.
Jian G reportedly offered himself as an informant to the German foreign intelligence service, BND.
The BND forwarded the offer to the Saxon State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which reportedly intended to use him to learn more about Beijing’s espionage operations against Chinese dissidents in Germany.
Newspaper Bild said Jian G was approached by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony in 2007.
It is unclear whether he might have already been working for Chinese intelligence at that time.
Eight years after he was recruited as an informant, the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution was warned about him by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
That office suspected Jian G was acting as a double agent and passed information to the Chinese secret services.
In 2018, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution cut ties with Jian G and had monitored him ever since.
Jian G applied to work with Krah when the German was elected in the European Parliament in 2019. Prior to that, he was connected to the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Despite Jian G being suspected of spying, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution never informed Krah about this. “The security authorities did not warn or inform me at any time,” the AfD candidate told Stern. “The security authorities obviously had knowledge, did not inform me,” Krah added. “That’s quite remarkable.”
When the news broke about the arrest of his former assistant, the leadership of the AfD decided that Krah would take a back seat in the EP campaign.
That period appears to be over and during the May 1 celebration, Krah was prominent at the AfD party event in Dresden, where he gave a long speech.
