An aide to a German member of the European Parliament has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
The arrests were made on Monday in the eastern city of Dresden.Just hours after German authorities released the news Three people arrested in west of country Suspected of leaking maritime propulsion technology data and exporting high-power lasers to China. It is unclear whether the two cases are related.
Prosecutors said that under German privacy rules, G. Jiang had been working for a German member of the European Parliament since 2019.
Prosecutors called him “an employee of the Chinese secret service” and accused G. of repeatedly passing information about parliamentary deliberations and decisions to Chinese intelligence services in January. According to reports, Mr. G is a German citizen and has also been accused of espionage against Chinese opposition groups in Germany. a statement From the prosecutor’s office.
The Chinese government denies any involvement in the case.
“We are aware of relevant reports and related hype,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday. “In fact, it has become very clear to everyone recently that the so-called ‘Chinese espionage threat theory’ is not new in European public discourse,” he added.
Nancy Feser, Germany’s interior minister responsible for homeland security, called the accusations “extremely serious.”
“If it is confirmed that the European Parliament is spying for Chinese intelligence services, it would be an attack on the very fabric of European democracy,” she said in a statement on Tuesday morning.
Maximilian Krah, a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, confirmed that the arrested man was one of his employees.
“If these allegations are proven to be true, we will terminate the employment immediately,” Mr. Klar wrote on X.
A spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor’s office, which will be responsible for any investigation into the aide’s workplace at the European Parliament in Brussels, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the European Parliament did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Klar, who has served in the European Parliament since 2019, has positioned himself to the right of the AfD. He is considered the party’s top candidate in June’s European Parliament elections.
The arrest of his aide is not the first time Mr. Klara’s name has been linked to alleged foreign spies.
According to internal records reviewed by The New York Times, Mr. Get access badge Reporting to the European Parliament of a Polish man later accused of spying for Russia.
Martina Steeves Gridnev Reporting from Brussels.
