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Munich football star faces up to 10 years’ prison for bar brawl

German prosecutors said Thursday they had brought a charge of grievous bodily harm against Bayern Munich midfielder Arturo Vidal over a nightclub brawl last year.

Munich football star faces up to 10 years’ prison for bar brawl
Arturo Vidal. Photo: DPA

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Munich, Florian Weinzierl, said Vidal could face a sentence of up to 10 years over the melee in a local disco last September.

“He is accused of involvement in a verbal, and then physical, altercation in September 2017,” Weinzierl told AFP, but he declined to provide further details.

The Munich district court must now decide whether the case against the 31-year-old Chilean will go to trial, he added.

The daily Bild reported earlier that Vidal's brother Sandrino had also been charged over the row on a night they were celebrating a Bayern victory over Mainz.

The newspaper said Vidal, who has a history of run-ins with the law, “knocked over glasses, sat on tables and insulted other guests” and then resisted pleas by club security to settle down.

In the end punches were thrown, then glasses, and one person was hurt when struck in the head by a vodka bottle, although Bild said it was not thrown by Vidal's entourage.

Bayern announced in April that Vidal would be out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.

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CRIME

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

An aide to a German far-right politician standing in June's European Union elections has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

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.

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