Hamburg court jails 2 men over plot to attack Jewish leaders on behalf of Iran

A Hamburg court handed down lengthy prison sentences to two men on Thursday for their alleged involvement in a plot to attack Jewish leaders in Germany on behalf of Iran's secret service. The primary conspirator, a 54-year-old Danish man of Afghan descent, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, while the other defendant, a 43-year-old Afghan man living in Denmark, received an eight-and-a-half year sentence as the mastermind behind the attacks.

The 54-year-old had received explicit orders from Iran's al-Quds Brigades, the foreign arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, to carry out the planned assaults. He had enlisted his accomplice to either execute the attacks himself or find someone capable of doing so. The younger defendant's task included locating a weapon for one of the planned attacks.

Beyond targeting two high-ranking Jewish figures in Germany, the 54-year-old had also prepared an arson attack on a kosher deli in Berlin. The pair was arrested by Danish authorities in Aarhus last year and subsequently extradited to Germany. Among the intended targets were Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli society.

Beck called for Berlin to expel Iran's ambassador and consular officials following the announcement of the charges. In response to the arrests, Germany's Foreign Office summoned Iran's ambassador, leading the Iranian embassy in Berlin to release a statement rejecting the "unfounded allegations" made by Iran's adversaries.