A German court on Tuesday sentenced an aide to a far-right former European lawmaker to almost five years in prison for spying for China.

Jian Guo worked for Maximilian Krah, who was a high-profile MEP from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from 2019 to 2024, until the aide was arrested by German police in April last year.

A court in Dresden sentenced Guo to four years and nine months behind bars for acting as an agent for a Chinese intelligence service, various German media outlets reported.

Prosecutors alleged Guo was secretly employed by a Chinese spy agency and passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament, collected personal information on AfD leadership and spied on Chinese opposition figures and dissidents.

They also accused him of being the handler for a second spy, a Chinese national identified by authorities as Yaqi X., who did not work for Krah.

Prosecutors requested seven-and-a-half years in jail.

Krah, who is no longer an MEP and serves as a lawmaker in the German Bundestag, has long maintained his ignorance about the allegations against Guo and testified in court earlier this month that he hired Guo for his language skills and experience.

But Krah himself has been investigated for taking bribes from both China and Russia and was questioned by the FBI over the matter. His offices were raided by German police this month and the German parliament has revoked his immunity.