Brussels office of far-right MEP Krah’s assistant raided in Chinese espionage case

6 months ago 19

*This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.

Law enforcement officers raided the offices of far-right AfD lead candidate Maximilian Krah’s team in the European Parliament in Brussels early on Tuesday (7 May) to search for evidence against his former aide, suspected to have worked for Beijing.

The European Parliament confirmed the raid but gave no other details. It was not immediately clear if the raid had been carried out by the Belgian police.

Two weeks ago, Krah’s former aide Jian Guo got arrested in Germany for allegedly working for Chinese intelligence.

According to information available to Euractiv, the focus of the authorities’ search was Guo’s office. However, the search first started in the office of another one of Krah’s assistants and it was not clear if Guo’s office would also be searched.

Krah was not notified of the entry and learned about it from press reports, Euractiv understands.

The European Parliament confirmed to Euractiv “that access to an office was provided”.

“When and if requested to, the European Parliament fully cooperates with law enforcement and judicial authorities to assist the course of justice and will continue to do so,” it said.

Last Friday, Krah received confirmation that the investigation of Chinese espionage does not involve him and that only Guo is under suspicion.

The German Federal Attorney General suspects Guo of infiltrating multiple civil society organisations, and in one case, working as a secretary-general, he reportedly had access to sensitive information.

In addition, he is accused of relaying parliamentary information to the Chinese, using access via Krah’s office in the European Parliament as an assistant.

While Krah has not been connected to the espionage case, two other preliminary investigations against him into alleged bribery are ongoing.

*Max Griera contributed to the report