Hamburg convictions
The Higher Regional Court in Hamburg sentenced two men living in Denmark on Thursday, 15 October. The 54-year-old received eight and a half years in prison and the 43-year-old four and a half years, on charges of espionage, attempted participation in a murder and aggravated arson. The judges found that the pair had scouted Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, who chairs the German-Israeli Society. According to the court, the activity served the preparation of state-terrorist attacks, specifically a murder attempt on Beck. The court also found that the older man had prepared an arson attack on a kosher food store in Berlin.
- 54-year-old defendant
- 8.5 years
- 43-year-old defendant
- 4.5 years
Data from the article text
Orders from Tehran
The 54-year-old had received his assignments directly from officers of the Al-Quds Brigades, the foreign unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the court concluded. Berlin had already lobbied the EU to list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation and to add them to the EU sanctions list, and the Foreign Office now says that effort succeeded. A ministry spokeswoman described the Guards as masterminds behind foiled terror attacks in Europe and Germany. Tehran regards Israel as a mortal enemy for ideological reasons and cooperates with militias such as Hamas, which seek Israel's destruction. The summons came four days after the verdict.
Berlin's response
On Monday, 19 October, the German government summoned Iran's ambassador in Berlin. The Foreign Office said on X that it condemns Iran's activities in the strongest terms and warned Tehran against threatening German society.
“We will not allow Iran to threaten our free society.”
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said in Berlin that the federal government tolerates no threat to Jewish life in Germany, and that the ambassador had been told this position in no uncertain terms. The ministry's statement added a further warning:
“We do not tolerate attacks on Jewish life and on those who defend it, anywhere, least of all in Germany.”
The Foreign Office also said the attempted attacks on Schuster and Beck would have legal consequences.