Belgian police have raided the home of a European Parliament employee in connection with alleged Russian interference into the European elections.
The employee's offices were also searched in the Parliament buildings in both Brussels and Strasbourg.
A far-right Dutch MEP has issued a statement identifying one of his assistants, Guillaume Pradoura, as the target of the raids.
The Belgian federal public prosecutor’s office said the searches were part of an ongoing investigation into "interference, passive corruption and membership of a criminal organisation".
In a statement, prosecutors said an alleged Russian interference operation involved MEPs who were "allegedly approached and paid to promote Russian propaganda via the Voice of Europe 'news website’".
"There are indications that the European Parliament employee involved played a significant role in this," the statement said.
The raids were carried out this morning in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels following a court order. The EU’s judicial cooperation agency Eurojust and the French authorities were involved in the Strasbourg searches.
In March, the Czech government sanctioned Voice of Europe, which was based in Prague, saying it was part of a pro-Russian influence operation.
The Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said at the time that Russia had approached MEPs and "paid [them], to promote Russian propaganda".
Voice of Europe, which denied the allegations, ran a YouTube channel showing debates that featured far-right and eurosceptic MEPs who would regularly criticise the EU’s support for Ukraine.
One of those involved in Voice of Europe was Maximilian Krah, a member of the German far-right party the AfD.
Guillaume Pradoura had previously worked as an assistant for Mr Krah.
He was recently expelled from the far-right Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament after telling an Italian newspaper that Nazi-SS members "were not necessarily criminals".
Mr Pradoura had also worked for a French far-right MEP Nicolas Bay. According to French media reports, he was suspended as an assistant after a photograph emerged of him posing as an anti-semitic caricature.
This afternoon, Dutch far-right MEP Marcel de Graaff, whom Mr Pradoura currently works for, said the raid had come as a surprise and that neither he nor his assistant had been informed.
Mr de Graaff denied involvement in "any so-called Russian interference campaign".
In a statement he said: "I have my own political beliefs and I proclaim them. That is my job as an MEP."
He accused the Belgian authorities of directing their investigation against the German AfD "for fear of a good election result".
