Again, German authorities have someone in their sights for suspected spying for China. There is a connection to AfD man Maximilian Krah’s ex-employee, who was arrested in April.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has had a suspected Chinese spy arrested in Leipzig. As the highest German prosecutor announced, the woman is said to have worked for a logistics service company at Leipzig/Halle Airport – and at the same time worked as an agent for the Chinese secret service. She is now in custody.
In particular, the accused is said to have passed on information about flights, cargo and passengers at the Saxon airport to Jian Guo, who has also already been arrested – a former employee of the AfD politician Maximilian Krah. This primarily involved information about the transport of military equipment and people with connections to a German defense company.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the woman is therefore “strongly suspected” of being an intelligence agent for a Chinese secret service. She was caught on Monday by officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office in Leipzig, and her apartment and workplace were searched. The investigating judge in Karlsruhe issued the arrest warrant to her on the same day and executed it.
Connections to ex-AfD employees
The federal prosecutor’s office also had Guo arrested in April for suspected spy activity. He has also been in custody since then. The Karlsruhe authorities accuse him of passing on information from the EU Parliament. He is said to have worked for AfD MEP Krah since 2019. He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.
Krah commented on the new arrest on Tuesday on the short message service The accused only communicated with his ex-employee. “The only reproach I make in connection with my Chinese-born ex-employee is that I didn’t pay more attention.”
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) warned of further espionage cases: “The arrest of a suspected Chinese spy in Leipzig shows us once again that foreign secret services have long since targeted Germany,” Buschmann told “Bild”. “This particularly applies to secret services from countries with which we have a systemic rivalry.”
Searches in the EU Parliament at the beginning of May
As part of the investigation against Guo, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had Krah’s offices in the European Parliament in Brussels searched at the beginning of May. The authorities emphasized at the time that Krah himself was only affected as a witness and not a suspect.
More of the colorful background of Krah’s ex-employee is now known. A few years ago, Guo tried to work for the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). However, according to information from the German Press Agency, the foreign intelligence service refused to cooperate at the time. According to reports, the man was later presented to the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution, where he was not taken into account either – also because he was not considered reliable.
Source: Stern
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