DRESDEN, Germany: A former aide to German far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah in the European parliament was jailed for four years and nine months on Tuesday (Sep 30) on charges of spying for China.
The court in Dresden found Jian Guo guilty of acting as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service while working for Krah, a member of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
An accomplice of Guo, a woman named only as Yaqi X, was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months.
“There is no question that you were an employee of a Chinese intelligence service,” presiding judge Hans Schlueter-Staats said to Guo, citing wiretapped conversations and other evidence.
Prosecutors had sought seven and a half years in jail for Guo, a German national who worked as a Brussels-based staffer for Krah between 2019 and 2024.
Guo had worked for Chinese intelligence from 2007 and used his position in Krah’s office to gather intelligence on European affairs and on the AfD, according to the written verdict.
The court heard he passed on hundreds of documents and collected information about leading AfD politicians, including party leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla.
He also spied on Chinese opposition figures and dissidents in Germany.
During the trial, Guo had denied working for a Chinese intelligence service and said he was innocent.
CARGO MOVEMENTS
Chinese national Yaqi X, who worked at a firm that provided Leipzig airport with logistics services, admitted she had passed on information to Guo about flight schedules and cargo movements.
She collected “information about flights, cargo and passengers … in particular about military transports,” the court said.
Krah, now an MP in Berlin, said he was not surprised by the verdict.
“My main concern now is to gain clarity about the espionage activities of which I was a victim,” he said in a post on the X platform.
Krah told the court earlier this month he had employed Guo because of his language skills and experience of running an import-export firm.
“At no time was I warned by any public authority, whether from the Federal Republic (of Germany) or the EU, of any danger,” Krah said on the witness stand.
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