By Deutsche Welle (Asia) | Created at 2025-01-09 17:32:11 | Updated at 2025-01-10 02:10:05
9 hours ago
German prosecutors on Thursday said that three people had been indicted on suspicion of spying for China by obtaining information about military technology.
The information gathering was allegedly done on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security (MSS) spy agency.
The indictment comes just weeks after a United States national was arrested in Frankfurt in November on allegations of offering intelligence on the US military to China while working for US forces in Germany.
The case against the three accused
Herwig F., Ina F. and Thomas R., were arrested by officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in the western German cities of Düsseldorf and Bad Homburg in April last year.
Prosecutors said the Thomas R. had from 2017 "acted as an agent for an employee of the Chinese intelligence service MSS based in China."
He is believed to have made contact with married couple Herwig F. and Ina F., who ran a company in Düsseldorf with the company serving as a way to contact and work with German scientists and researchers.
"In the period from February 2017 to April 2024, they repeatedly collected information that could be useful for the expansion of China's maritime combat power in particular," a statement from Germany's Office of the Attorney General read.
"This included information on boat engines, sonar systems, aircraft protection systems, propulsion systems for armored vehicles and military drones."
The information was then said to have been passed back to China via Thomas R.
At the time of their arrest German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had said that the government was monitoring a significant threat posed by Chinese espionage in business, industry and science.
China has not yet responded to the latest developments but at the time of the arrests, the Chinese Embassy in Berlin issued a statement rejecting accusations it was spying in Germany.
Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.
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kb,km/ab (dpa, AFP)
