Germany’s parliament on Thursday lifted the immunity of Alternative for Germany lawmaker Maximilian Krah, 47, clearing the way for prosecutors to pursue criminal charges as authorities carried out court-ordered searches of his parliamentary office in Berlin and his home and offices in Dresden and Brussels.
The searches were ordered by the Dresden Higher Regional Court, German news agency dpa reported. Police executed warrants at multiple locations after the Bundestag removed Krah’s legislative immunity, a step prosecutors said was necessary to permit criminal proceedings against him.
Prosecutors in Dresden opened a preliminary investigation in May into suspected bribery and money laundering linked to alleged payments from China tied to Krah’s former role as a member of the European Parliament, dpa reported. Authorities said the inquiry aims to determine whether there are sufficient grounds to bring charges or whether the proceedings should be discontinued.
The actions follow earlier probes in Brussels. Belgian authorities searched Krah’s former European Parliament offices in connection with an assistant, Jian Guo, who was arrested last year and has been charged with spying for China. Germany’s federal prosecutor has accused Guo of working for a Chinese intelligence service and of repeatedly passing on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament between September 2019 and April 2024.
Krah has previously denied the allegations. There was no immediate public information on the results of Thursday’s raids.
Krah, 47, was barred by his own party from running in last year’s European elections after telling an Italian newspaper that not all members of the SS, the Nazi elite unit responsible for major war crimes during World War II, were war criminals; the party’s leadership said the comments were unacceptable. Despite that internal censure, he won a seat in the Bundestag earlier this year as the AfD made historic gains in the national election.
Mainstream German parties have maintained a so-called firewall, refusing to cooperate with the AfD despite its strengthened parliamentary presence. AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla issued a statement Thursday characterizing the lifting of immunity and the searches as "serious matters" and saying they "expect the investigation to be concluded swiftly and the results to be published."
Dresden prosecutors said the current probe centers on whether alleged Chinese payments to Krah constituted bribery or money laundering in connection with his former European Parliament activities. Investigators will review documents and material seized in the searches as they assess whether to file formal charges.
The removal of a lawmaker’s immunity is an established legal mechanism in Germany that allows judicial authorities to pursue investigations and prosecutions against members of parliament. The proceedings now move to the prosecutorial phase, and any potential charges would have to be proven in court. The case adds to broader concerns in Europe about foreign influence and alleged espionage tied to political institutions.