Maximilian Krah, a lawmaker for the far-right AfD, has testified in court during the trial of his former assistant, accused of being a Chinese spy. The case highlights alleged Chinese intelligence operations in Germany. https://p.dw.com/p/4zss7 The AfD's Maximilian Krah arriving at the Dresden court The AfD's Maximilian Krah is to testify in the case against Jian GImage: Jens Schlueter/AFP ADVERTISEMENT Prominent far-right lawmaker Maximilian Krah faced some difficult questions in a Dresden court on Wednesday, when he was called as a witness in the trial of his former assistant Jian G.*, a suspected Chinese spy. Krah was a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) from 2019, before entering the German parliament this year, and was the party's leading candidate in last year's European election. Jian G. was an accredited assistant to Krah throughout the politician's term in the European Parliament, which gave him access to the parliament's negotiations and procedures. While he was there, according to German federal prosecutors, he gathered hundreds of documents that he "reviewed for intelligence purposes, in order to pass on to the Chinese secret service." The prosecutors say that Jian, who they believe was working for Chinese intelligence since 2002, saved some 500 European Parliament documents, some classified as "sensitive," on laptops or USB sticks, some of which he took to China. Jian's accreditation would also have allowed him to move freely within the European Parliament and learn its inner workings. Along with his co-defendant, a woman named in the indictment only as Xiao, Jian G. is also alleged to have gathered information about leading members of the AfD, the Chinese opposition community, and about the transport of German military equipment, troops, and fighter drones from Leipzig airport. What German secrets did AfD ex-aide allegedly pass to China? 03:44 Bribery accusations On Wednesday, Krah testified that his entire team in the European Parliament had had access to his email accounts and documents, as he had delegated all administrative issues around access. "I hate all that stuff," he told the court. Krah also mentioned several details about his working relationship with Jian G. "He was the last person in the office," he said. "He was always accessible for me, 24/7. I wrote to him whenever something came to me. I was sometimes astonished at what times the answers came." The politician had also noticed that Jian G. diligently kept memos about conversations and meetings. "He could tell us months later about details in team meetings that we had long forgotten," he said. Asked why he hired Jian G. as an assistant, Krah said, "We (the AfD) don't have a lot of good people when it comes to trade expertise. That was one reason. Another reason is that I believe it is important to build teams out of people with different perspectives and backgrounds." Krah has said he felt "betrayed" by his former employee. "For more than 10 years we had a good, very trustful relationship," he told DW's Matthew Moore in early August. "So obviously, if the prosecutor's office is right, my trust was misused. I'm the man who has the most interest in finding out what really happened." Krah also apparently considered the suspect a friend: "He was in a very intelligent way a little bit surreal and maybe I like people who are both intelligent and surreal, who are a little bit out-of-the-box," he said. "I often ask myself whether I maybe have overlooked something or I should have taken more control, maybe." Though he is only appearing as a witness on Wednesday, Krah is himself under investigation by state prosecutors on accusations of bribery — as a lawyer, he once represented Jian G.'s import-export company, and received money from the suspect. Krah dismissed these payments, which he said amounted to no more than a few hundred euros, as the routine fees a lawyer receives from his client.