Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIME

Steinmeier strengthens calls for action against pirates

The German government has reiterated its calls for action against the pirates operating along the coast of Somalia, with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying this weekend, “We have to act urgently.”

Published: 23 November 2008 11:39 CET

Steinmeier strengthens calls for action against pirates

The next victim, a Chinese fishing boat is captured. Photo:DPA

He told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, “We need to finally regain secure sea routes around the Horn of Africa.”

Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said he wanted to see the European nations working together to create a legal basis for any action.

“There must be a robust mandate which will help to scare them off, and enable an effective basis for dealing with this,” he told the paper.

But the pirates holding sway over the supertanker Sirius Star have warned they would fight back if force were to be used to try to take it back.

“We would defend the tanker if we were to be attacked,” Abdiyare Moalim, one of those involved, told the news agency AFP.

He said he and his comrades did not want to damage the ship or hurt the crew, but wanted €20 million from its Saudi owners.

Although Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Prince Saud el Faisal has dismissed calls to talk, Moalim has claimed negotiations are taking place.

Aide to German far-right MEP arrested on suspicion of spying for China

The man, named only as Jian G., stands accused of sharing information about negotiations at European Parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

On the website of the European Parliament, Jian Guo is listed as an accredited assistant to MEP Maximilian Krah, the far-right AfD party’s lead candidate in the forthcoming EU-wide elections.

He is a German national who has reportedly worked as an aide to Krah in Brussels since 2019.

The suspect “is an employee of a Chinese secret service”, prosecutors said.

“In January 2024, the accused repeatedly passed on information about negotiations and decisions in the European Parliament to his intelligence service client.

“He also spied on Chinese opposition members in Germany for the intelligence service.”

The suspect was arrested in the eastern German city of Dresden on Monday and his homes were searched, they added.

The accused lives in both Dresden and Brussels, according to broadcasters ARD, RBB and SWR, who broke the news about the arrest.

The AfD said the allegations were “very disturbing”.

“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” party spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf said in a statement.

The case is likely to fuel concern in the West about aggressive Chinese espionage.

It comes after Germany on Monday arrested three German nationals suspected of spying for China by providing access to secret maritime technology.

READ ALSO: Germany arrests three suspected of spying for China

China’s embassy in Berlin “firmly” rejected the allegations, according to Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

According to German media, the two cases are not connected.

In Britain on Monday, two men were charged with handing over “articles, notes, documents or information” to China between 2021 and last year.

Police named the men as Christopher Berry, 32, and Christoper Cash, 29, who previously worked at the UK parliament as a researcher.

Url copied to clipboard!