{"id":44011,"date":"2026-06-26T16:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/44011\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T16:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:59:15","slug":"2-men-go-on-trial-in-germany-over-alleged-iran-backed-plots-targeting-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/44011\/","title":{"rendered":"2 men go on trial in Germany over alleged Iran-backed plots targeting Jews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two men went on trial in Germany on Friday accused of planning attacks on prominent pro-Israel public figures and spying on Jews on behalf of Iranian secret services.<\/p>\n

Danish national Ali S. is charged with espionage, attempted murder, attempted arson and sabotage, while his alleged Afghan accomplice, Tawab M., is accused of attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Ali S. allegedly spied on the head of the German-Israeli Society, the former Greens MP Volker Beck, as part of plans to assassinate him, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

He is also accused of spying on the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin as part of plans to carry out arson attacks.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say Ali S. in early 2025 took orders from the Quds Force, the foreign operations branch of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n

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The two men were remanded in custody in Germany following their arrest last year in Denmark and subsequent extradition.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tGreen party\u2019s Volker Beck speaks in a debate of the German parliament Bundestag on gay marriage in Berlin, Germany, June 30, 2017. (AP Photo\/Markus Schreiber)<\/p>\n

Volker Beck was in the public gallery at the opening of the trial, accompanied by police protection, Marayke Frantzen, a spokeswoman for the court in Hamburg, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Both defendants exercised their right to remain silent after the indictment was read out, Frantzen said.<\/p>\n

When the charges were announced in May, Beck called on Berlin to expel the Iranian ambassador as well as consular officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cJewish life and a commitment to the Jewish and democratic state are repeatedly threatened with murder and attacked by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran on German soil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the foreign ministry summoned Iran\u2019s ambassador to Germany to protest following Ali. S\u2019s arrest in Denmark.<\/p>\n

When the two men were charged last month, the Iranian embassy in Berlin released a statement rejecting what it called \u201cunfounded allegations made at the behest of Iran\u2019s enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diaspora Jewish communities, which are already facing spiking antisemitism, have seen an uptick in attacks with links to Iran proven or suspected in a number of them.<\/p>\n

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two men went on trial in Germany on Friday accused of planning attacks on prominent pro-Israel public figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[20236,37764,1446,5,22372,22373,37765,37763],"class_list":["post-44011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-antisemitism-in-germany","tag-central-council-of-jews-in-germany","tag-denmark","tag-germany","tag-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-irgc","tag-josef-schuster","tag-quds-force","tag-volker-beck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}