Germany jails two men for Iran-backed plots against pro-Israel figures, spying on Jews

HAMBURG — A German court on Thursday jailed two men for planning attacks on prominent pro-Israel public figures and spying on Jews on behalf of Iranian secret services.

The Hamburg court sentenced a Danish national, partially identified as Ali Hassan S., to eight-and-a-half years in prison for plotting deadly attacks.

His targets included the head of the German-Israeli society, Volker Beck, and the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster.

An Afghan accomplice, Tawab M., was sentenced to four-and-a-half years. Prosecutors said he had agreed to recruit a third man and provide him with a weapon for the attack on Beck.

The crimes were “terrorist activities orchestrated by Iran,” judge Petra Wende-Spors said, adding the Danish national was preparing a contract killing “for purely political reasons.”

He took orders from the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in early 2025, prosecutors said.

He also spied on a Jewish grocer’s shop in Berlin, they said.

The two men were convicted in Germany after being arrested in Denmark last year and extradited.

“The trial has convincingly shown how Iran exports its terror to Germany,” Volker Beck said after the sentencing, as he repeated a call for the Iranian ambassador to be expelled.

“The verdict is a wake-up call for German security policy. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a state-sponsored terrorist regime that threatens and persecutes political opponents and Jewish or Israeli targets in Germany,” he added.

Germany’s foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador in July last year to protest following the Danish man’s arrest.

When the two men were charged, the Iranian embassy in Berlin released a statement rejecting what it called “unfounded allegations made at the behest of Iran’s enemies.”