German authorities arrested a sixth suspected spy in six days, a statement released Tuesday revealed.
Saxony State police officers arrested the suspect, a German national identified as Jian G., Monday in Dresden, Germany, according to the statement from the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Jian G., identified as “an employee of a Chinese secret service” who has been an aide to a German member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2019, allegedly “repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence client” four months ago, the statement revealed.
“He also spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany for the intelligence service,” the statement noted.
Jian G. was scheduled to appear in a German federal court Wednesday, according to the statement.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Tuesday that the allegation of espionage from within the European Parliament, if confirmed, would be “an attack on European democracy from within” and said the suspect’s employer should be held liable.
German MEP Maximilian Krah identified himself as the MEP who allegedly employed Jian G.
“I learned about the arrest of the member of my staff, Jian Guo, from the press this morning,” Krah said in a statement released Tuesday. “I don’t have any additional information. Spying for a foreign state is a serious accusation. If the allegations prove true, it will result in the immediate termination of Mr. Guo’s employment with me.”
Jian G.’s arrest makes him the sixth espionage suspect arrested in Germany since April 17, when two German-Russian nationals identified as Dieter S. and Alexander J. were arrested in the town of Bayreuth, Germany, according to a separate statement from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. (RELATED: Lawmaker’s Researcher Among Five Alleged Chinese Spies Arrested In Two NATO Countries)
Dieter S. allegedly was plotting to use explosives and carry out arson attacks against certain industrial and military sites — including U.S. military facilities — which he had been reconnoitering on behalf of the Russian secret service. Dieter S. allegedly also had fought for a pro-Russian separatist armed group in Eastern Ukraine between 2014 and 2016, the statement revealed.
Alexander J. was accused of abetting Dieter S.’s alleged reconnaissance of the target facilities in Germany, according to the statement.
Authorities on Monday arrested three German nationals — Herwig F., Ina F. and Thomas R. — who were “strongly suspected of having worked for a Chinese secret service” since sometime before June 2022, according to a separate statement. They reportedly were arrested in Düsseldorf, western Germany, and Bad Homburg, west-central Germany.
Thomas R., allegedly an agent for a Chinese Secret Service (MSS) employee, made use of a company run by Herwig F. and Ina F. to allegedly glean information on innovative German technology for military use, the statement revealed. The company allegedly reached an agreement with a German university for a scientific project involving state-of-the-art machine parts for use in combat ship engines. The beneficiary of the project, allegedly funded by the Chinese state, was a Chinese entity backed by the MSS employee allegedly linked to Thomas R.
The three individuals also allegedly purchased a special laser from Germany for and with funding from the MSS, and then allegedly exported it to China in contravention of the E.U. Dual-Use Regulation. Items, technology and software protected by the E.U. regulation have both civilian and military use.
Poland and the U.K. are two other NATO countries with recent reports of arrests of alleged spies.