The Hamburg Higher Regional Court on Thursday, October 15, sentenced two men to eight and a half years and four and a half years in prison, respectively, for espionage activities for the Islamic Republic of Iran and involvement in preparing an attack on Jewish and pro-Israel targets in Germany. These plans were directed by Iran, but their execution was to be decentralized and carried out using operatives in Germany.
Details of the Defendants' Case
According to the German Federal Prosecutor's Office, one of the defendants had connections with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran and was tasked with gathering information about Joseph Schuster, the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, the head of the German-Israeli Association. This information was collected with the aim of preparing for potential attacks against these individuals. The second defendant had also expressed readiness to assist in procuring weapons and preparing for an attack against Beck. The two defendants, who hold Danish and Afghan citizenships, were arrested in Denmark last year.
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Security Concerns and Consequences
Reports indicate that a kosher grocery store in Berlin was also among the potential targets of this plan. Following the verdict, Volker Beck welcomed the court's ruling and called for the expulsion of the Islamic Republic's ambassador, a reduction in the number of Iranian embassy staff in Germany, and increased protective measures for Jewish and pro-Israel centers. He also referred to the information presented regarding security threats, mentioning the existence of a list of 11 potential targets in Berlin. According to Beck, the initial information about the plans under investigation in this case was provided by the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, and Germany's domestic intelligence agency was also involved in the investigation process.
This case has once again raised the issue of operations attributed to the Islamic Republic against its targets and opponents outside Iran and the responsibility of government officials in such actions. The Mykonos assassination in Berlin in September 1992, which resulted in the deaths of four members and the leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, is a significant previous example of such cases. The Berlin court in 1997 confirmed the responsibility of senior officials of the Islamic Republic in these murders; a ruling that had significant political and diplomatic consequences for Iran-Germany relations.
Parviz Dasmalchi, a survivor of the Mykonos assassination and an author with multiple works on the state terrorism of the Islamic Republic, views this phenomenon not as a sporadic act or a result of the decisions of rogue individuals, but as part of the government's strategy to maintain and strengthen its political power. He emphasizes that in state-sponsored terrorist operations, the executors, designers, and intermediaries are links in a chain, and the responsibility for investigating such operations should not be limited to the direct executors.
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