Police search Brussels office of prominent far-right German lawmaker over China spying allegations

By The Associated Press on May 7, 2024.

BERLIN (AP) – Authorities were searching the European parliament office of a prominent German far-right lawmaker in Brussels on Tuesday, Germany’s top prosecutor’s office said.

Maximilian Krah, the Alternative for Germany party’s top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections, has been under scrutiny after an assistant of his was arrested last month on suspicion of spying for China.

Jian Guo – a German national who had worked for Krah since his election to the European Union legislature in 2019 – has been accused of of working for a Chinese intelligence service and of repeatedly passing on information on negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament in January.

The top prosecutor’s office said in a statement Tuesday that “the European Parliament has consented to enter the premises.”

An apartment of Guo in Brussels had already been searched last month, the prosecutors’ statement said.