The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office reported that on Wednesday in Munich, they had two German nationals taken into custody on suspicion of intelligence agent activity. The couple is alleged to have worked for a Chinese intelligence service.
The individuals are accused of building contacts with scientists at German universities and research facilities to access militarily viable high technology. According to authorities, they allegedly posed as interpreters or employees of an automobile manufacturer. Furthermore, they are accused of luring scientists to China under the guise of academic lectures, when the actual meetings took place with members of state-owned defense companies.
In addition to the arrests, police conducted searches on the suspects’ residences and workplaces in Munich on Wednesday.
The scope of the investigation was wide-ranging; ten non-suspect individuals were also questioned as witnesses across multiple federal states. These locations included Baden-Württemberg (Konstanz district and Stuttgart), Bavaria (Erding, Munich, and Munich districts), Berlin, Brandenburg (Dahme-Spreewald district), Lower Saxony (Harburg, Lüneburg, and Peine districts), and North Rhine-Westphalia (Aachen and Rhine).
The investigation was conducted in cooperation with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and the Bavarian State Police Office was tasked with the police investigation. The accused are scheduled to appear before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice later that day, who will decide on the execution of the pre-trial detention.