(Adnkronos) – The espionage trial against Jian Guo, former assistant to Maximilian Krah, AfD MEP between 2019 and 2025, Spitzenkandidat of Alternative for Germany in the European elections at the time of the events, opens in Dresden, Germany. The defendant is suspected of having worked for the Chinese services since 2002 and of having collected and passed intelligence data to the Beijing services – about 500 documents, some of which contain information considered particularly sensitive – while working as a parliamentary assistant for Krah between September 2019 and April 2024, when he was arrested.
The defendant, a 44-year-old German citizen, is also suspected of having collected information on prominent AfD politicians and of having spied on Chinese dissidents in Germany. Also on trial is a Chinese citizen, identified as Jaqi X, formerly employed by a logistics service provider at Leipzig airport, suspected of having repeatedly provided Jian with data on flights, transport of goods and passengers linked to Rheinmetall, the German arms manufacturer. The Court has set 13 days of hearings to be held by the end of September.
According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, investigators seized, among other things, documents in Chinese containing information on internal struggles within the AfD and details on the private life of the party’s co-leader Alice Weidel, topics which Krah denied having discussed with his assistant. The prosecution claims that Guo also provided Beijing with military information thanks to the alleged accomplice. The arrest of the parliamentary assistant, shortly after that of three other alleged Chinese agents, fueled fears of interference by Beijing in European politics. Krah will appear as a witness at the trial on September 3.
