Spanish
A German court on Tuesday sentenced a former aide to Alexander Krah, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, to four years and nine months in prison for espionage for China.
The Regional Court of Dresden, in the federal state of Saxony (east), considers it proven that the accused, the German citizen of Chinese origin Jian G., collected information between 2019 and 2024 and transmitted documents, some confidential, to the Chinese authorities, when he worked as an assistant in the former Krah office in Brussels, when the AfD politician was a Member of the European Parliament.
In addition, he collected personal information on AfD leaders and spied on Chinese dissidents.
The now-convicted, for whom the Prosecution requested a sentence of seven and a half years in prison, rejected in his last statement, last week, the accusations and assured that he had not worked for the Chinese secret services and pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer had requested acquittal due to lack of evidence.
In addition, Chinese citizen Yaqi X., alleged accomplice of Jian G., was sentenced to one year and nine months of probation. She was accused of having provided data on cargo, flights, and passengers as an employee of a logistics company at Leipzig Airport, in the federal state of Saxony.
During the trial, the defendant admitted to having provided information, but denied having had knowledge of the espionage activity.
Krah himself testified during the trial that he knew nothing about his former associate's activity as an agent and his membership in the Communist Party of China.
"The guilty verdict today against my former employee does not surprise me. Immediately after his arrest, I massively reinforced security in my office. Now my main concern is to clarify the espionage activities of which I was a victim," Krah wrote in a message on his X account.
Furthermore, Krah expressed his confidence that the arguments of the ruling will provide him with that clarity.
"Regardless of a foreseeable appeal, this matter so distressing to me thus comes to an end," he added.
On September 11th, the Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, unanimously approved the removal of immunity for Krah, who is being investigated by the Dresden Public Prosecutor's Office for allegedly accepting bribes when he was a Member of the European Parliament and for alleged money laundering in connection with Chinese payments.
