German academic’s wife charged with spying for China

Frankfurt: The wife of a German academic charged with spying for China has been indicted herself, with federal prosecutors on Monday saying she assisted her husband in sharing information with Chinese secret services.

According to prosecutors in Karlsruhe, German-Italian national Klara K. and her husband Klaus L. were approached by Chinese agents during a lecture tour to Shanghai in 2010. From then until November 2019, the couple "regularly passed on information to the Chinese intelligence service in the run-up to or after state visits or multinational conferences", prosecutors allege. Klaus L. had been running a political think tank since 2001, gaining international importance due to his scientific reputation and the networks he had built up over many years, the prosecutors said.

Chinese intelligence allegedly paid for the tips and for the pair to travel to meetings with their handlers. Neither Klaus L. nor his wife are in pre-trial detention.

The case has drawn close interest in Germany, with public broadcaster ARD saying Klaus L., 75, led a double life and had also been working as a spy for the German foreign intelligence services (BND).