A married couple has been arrested in Munich on suspicion of spying for China, federal prosecutors announced today.
The pair, both German citizens, allegedly re-established contacts with numerous scientists at German universities and research institutes in an effort to obtain “scientific information on high technology that may have military applications,” the Karlsruhe-based Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced.
According to prosecutors, the suspects targeted professors in the fields of aerospace engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence.
When approaching academics, the two suspects sometimes posed as interpreters and sometimes as employees at an automotive company.
“Some scientists were lured under the pretext that they would give paid lectures in China to political audiences,” prosecutors said. “In fact, these lectures were then communicated to members of state-owned defense companies.”
The two suspects are due to appear before a German federal court later today, which will decide whether to place them in temporary custody.
Prosecutors said that police operations linked to the case took place simultaneously in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. However, these operations involved approaching witnesses and not pursuing additional suspects.
In Munich, the private residences and workplaces of the two arrested men were searched.
