Hamburg court convicts two men of spying for Iran and plotting attacks on Jewish leaders

The verdict

The Higher Regional Court in Hamburg (Oberlandesgericht) convicted two men on Thursday, 15 October 2026, of intelligence agent activity and attempted complicity in murder. The main defendant, a 54-year-old, must serve eight and a half years in prison. His 43-year-old accomplice received four and a half years. The court adopted the terms the federal prosecutors had requested, while the defence had asked for acquittals. The judgment closes a trial in which prosecutors accused the pair of acting for Iran against Jewish figures in Germany.

Alleged targets

Prosecutors said the main defendant was to collect information on Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and on Volker Beck, a Green politician who heads the German-Israeli Society. According to the indictment, that information was meant to prepare attacks. The court also found that a planned arson attack on kosher food retailers in Berlin formed part of the plot. Prosecutors said the main defendant scouted several places in the capital in spring 2025, including two Jewish food retailers, and looked for accomplices there. By May 2025 at the latest, he had contacted the accomplice. The accomplice agreed to obtain a weapon for an unidentified third man and to persuade that man to carry out a murder attack on Beck.

Iran's role

Prosecutors said the main defendant received his assignments directly from officers of the Al-Quds Brigades, the foreign unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, and worked for that intelligence service. He is said to have travelled to Iran several times in connection with this work. The court classified his conduct as intelligence agent activity carried out on behalf of the regime in Tehran. The decisive tip reportedly came from abroad. The case therefore rests on the link between the defendants and Iranian state security structures, not on any act of violence carried out in Germany.

Arrests and custody

The main defendant was arrested in Denmark at the end of June 2025, and the accomplice was arrested there in early November 2025. Reports describe the main defendant as a Danish citizen with Afghan roots. The two men are described as one Danish and one Afghan citizen, and both lived in Denmark before their arrests. After the arrests, both were held in pretrial detention in Germany until the trial. The timeline below sets out the main steps in the case from the planning phase to the verdict.