Germany indicts alleged Iranian agent for planning to kill Jewish figures, pro-Israel former lawmaker

A man arrested last year has been charged with espionage and attempted participation in murder after an Iranian intelligence agency tasked him with gathering information on the head of Germany’s main Jewish group and three others with a view to carrying out attacks, German prosecutors say.

The suspect, a Danish national identified only as Ali S. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested last June in Denmark. An alleged accomplice, an Afghan national identified as Tawab M., was also arrested there in November. Federal prosecutors say they filed an indictment against the pair at the Hamburg state court on May 7.

Ali S. is charged with working as an agent for an intelligence service, acting as a secret agent for purposes of sabotage and attempted participation in murder and arson. Tawab M. is charged with attempted participation in murder.-

Prosecutors allege that Ali S. worked for the intelligence service of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was in close contact with the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force.

They say that, at the beginning of 2025, he was tasked with gathering information on the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, and on the head of the German-Israeli Society, prominent former German lawmaker Volker Beck, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin whom they don’t identify.

“All this served for the preparation of assassination and arson attacks in Germany,” prosecutors say in a statement.