Also on trial is a Chinese national named as Jaqi X. She worked at a firm that provided Leipzig airport with logistics services.
From mid-August 2023 to mid-February 2024, she is accused of assisting Jian G by repeatedly providing him with information for the Chinese intelligence service about flights, cargo, and passengers at Leipzig Airport.
The information related in particular to the transport of military equipment and people with connections to a German defence contractor.
She told the court she knew nothing about connections to the Chinese intelligence service.
The trial is expected to last until late September and reports in the German media say Maximilian Krah has been called to appear as a witness.
Krah resigned from his seat in the European Parliament earlier this year. He was elected to the Bundestag in February via an AfD direct mandate in Saxony.
He is currently under investigation by the Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office, reportedly concerning allegations of money laundering and corruption as an elected representative in the European Parliament.
Krah has called the accusations “absurd and politically motivated.”