Belgian law enforcement conducted raids on Wednesday at a private residence in Brussels and in European Parliament offices in Strasbourg and Brussels as part of the investigation into the so-called Russiagate case. This case involves allegations that individuals approached and paid MEPs to promote Russian propaganda via the Voice of Europe website.
“There are indications that the European Parliament employee concerned played a significant role in this,” stated Belgian law enforcement, politico reports.
According to two anonymous sources familiar with the investigation, Belgian police are examining the connections of a parliamentary assistant who previously worked for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—a party central to the case—and now works for far-right Dutch MEP Marcel de Graaff.
De Graaff’s office did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Recently, the AfD has become embroiled in numerous scandals, including the arrest in April of an aide to senior MEP Maximilian Krah. German authorities stated that the aide, Jian G., was an “employee of a Chinese secret service.”
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Following Jian G.’s arrest, German public prosecutors in Dresden began preliminary investigations into allegations that Krah had accepted payments from Russia and China “for his work as an MEP.” Earlier this month, Belgian and German police searched Krah’s European Parliament office as part of the espionage investigation.
Krah, who was the AfD’s lead candidate in the EU election, announced he would suspend campaigning and step down from his party’s leadership board due to the spy and corruption allegations, as well as recent inflammatory remarks about the Nazi-era Waffen-SS.
A spokesperson for the European Parliament declined to comment on the ongoing investigation but confirmed that authorities had provided access to an office.