German Court Jails Two Over Iran-Linked Plots

A Hamburg Higher Regional Court on 15 October 2026 sentenced Danish national Ali Hassan S. to eight years and six months and Afghan national Tawab M. to four years and six months. The court said S. was recruited by Iran's secret service and took Quds Force orders from early 2025 to gather information on Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society, and Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and to prepare an arson attack on a Jewish-owned kosher grocery in Berlin. Tawab M. agreed to recruit a third person and supply a firearm for a planned killing of Beck. Both were arrested in Denmark and extradited to Germany after federal charges in May. Judge Petra Wende-Spors called the acts "terrorist activities orchestrated by Iran" and said S. prepared a contract killing "for purely political reasons." The court stated it was convinced S. was integrated into Iranian intelligence for state-sponsored terrorist activities under Iran's direction. Beck said after sentencing the trial showed how Iran exports its terror to Germany and called the verdict a wake-up call, terming Iran a state-sponsored terrorist regime. When the men were charged, the Iranian embassy in Berlin rejected "unfounded allegations made at the behest of Iran's enemies." The verdicts can be appealed. Iran International reported phone searches for kosher stores and Schuster's address, S. meetings with Revolutionary Guards operatives in Iran, and a request about paying 30,000 Danish kroner for an arson.