Plots to assassinate prominent German Jewish community leaders on behalf of Iran uncovered by authorities
A Dane and an Afghan have been indicted in Germany in a case accusing them of plotting to assassinate leaders of the country's Jewish community on behalf of Iran, German prosecutors announced on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Ali S., a Danish citizen, is accused of acting as an agent of an intelligence service, of acting as a secret agent for the purposes of sabotage, but also of attempted participation in murder and arson. His alleged accomplice, Afghan citizen Tawab M., was charged with attempted murder.
According to German prosecutors, Ali S. worked for the intelligence service of Iran's Revolutionary Guards and maintained close contact with the organization's special unit, the Quds Force.
He was arrested in June 2025 in Denmark. Tawab M. was arrested in the same country in November, notes The Times of Israel.
What the prosecutors say about the two
Prosecutors allege that in early 2025, Ali S. was tasked with gathering information about the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, and the head of the German-Israeli Society, former German parliamentarian Volker Beck, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin whom they have not publicly identified.
“All this served to prepare assassinations and arson attacks in Germany,” prosecutors said in a statement.
According to the indictment, Ali S. searched various locations in Berlin last year and looked for accomplices for the attacks. By May 2025, he was in contact with Tawab M., who prosecutors allege expressed his willingness to procure a gun for a third party, not identified in the file, and make arrangements for him to try to kill Volker Beck.
After the arrest of Ali S. last year, Iran's ambassador was summoned to the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The embassy at the time rejected what it described as “baseless and dangerous allegations” of an alleged plan to attack Jewish sites.
In a statement Thursday, the German-Israeli Society said Beck, the organization's president, had been warned for six weeks last summer that “an attack could happen at any moment.”
Following Thursday's announcement by prosecutors, the German-Israeli Society called on Berlin to expel Iran's ambassador, freeze assets associated with Iran's former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the US-Israeli war, and impose sanctions on financial institutions with ties to Iran.
