EU documents with a high security rating have apparently been accessed by the office of AfD politician Maximilian Krah. His employee is suspected of espionage.
In the office of AfD European candidate Maximilian Krah, there was apparently interest in documents from the EU Parliament that were classified as secret. Several documents on foreign trade are said to have been accessed in recent years. An internal investigation by the committee administration into the use of the committee’s so-called sharepoints system is said to have brought this to light, reports “Spiegel”. The system gives MPs access to documents.
Preliminary investigations have already been initiated against Krah regarding alleged payments from China and Russia. He denies the allegations. The Federal Prosecutor General accuses one of Krah’s employees, Jian G., who was arrested in Dresden on Monday evening, of acting as an agent for a foreign secret service in a particularly serious case.
“Sensitive” and “locked” documents requested
The documents retrieved should have different levels of confidentiality. According to the “Spiegel” report, the committee administration’s evaluation shows that Krah’s office repeatedly requested documents that were classified as “sensitive” or “locked”. These include, for example, analyzes of the foreign trade strategies of partner states or documents on the course of trade negotiations. According to the investigation, Krah’s office did not request any papers that were stamped “confidential.” The AfD politician sits on the Foreign Trade Committee of the EU Parliament.
It is unclear who downloaded the documents, whether Krah himself or one of his employees, and how they played a role in the MP’s work. Krah did not initially respond to a query from “Spiegel” as to whether the employee Jian G., who was suspected of espionage, had access to the EU system. As several MPs report to the magazine, access for employees is common practice in parliament. Krah told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that he had checked whether Jian G. had had access to documents classified as secret. Result: negative.
Two AfD politicians in the headlines because of alleged numbers
The Federal Prosecutor General accuses Maximilian Krah’s (AfD) assistant of working for a Chinese secret service. Jian G. is said to have passed on information about decisions and negotiations to his clients several times in January 2024. He also allegedly researched the Chinese exile opposition. In October 2023, t-online exclusively reported that Krah initiated a Chinese lobby network. It was set up on his behalf by his assistant G., a former client of the lawyer Krah, whom the AfD politician hired in his office in Brussels after his election to the European Parliament in 2019.
Krah and Bundestag member Petr Bystron, who is in second place on the AfD European election list, have been in the headlines for weeks because of possible connections to pro-Russian networks. After media reports about possible monetary payments to both politicians, public prosecutors are checking whether an investigation should be started. Krah is also examining whether there should be an investigation into possible Chinese payments.
EU Parliament investigates payments to MPs
The EU Parliament is reportedly trying to clarify internally what is involved in possible payments from Russia to several EU MPs in connection with the news site “Voice of Europe”.
According to the “Spiegel” report, on the Thursday before last, Parliament President Roberta Metsola informed the parliamentary group leaders about discussions with representatives of the Czech, Polish and Belgian authorities regarding their intelligence information.
The Belgian security authorities are therefore convinced that they have sufficient evidence that foreign governments have paid money to EU parliamentarians. However, there are not investigations into all EU MPs who are mentioned in the press, but rather into cases that have not yet been made public.
