Danish man helped Iran plan attacks on Jewish targets in Berlin, police say

German authorities believe a special unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued orders to prepare attacks in Berlin.

By Toby Axelrod, JTA

A Danish citizen of Afghani descent has been arrested in Denmark on suspicion of helping Iran plan attacks on Jewish targets in Berlin.

The suspect, identified only as Ali S., is accused of spying on Jewish institutions and individuals in the German capital for Iranian intelligence services in preparation for further actions, including attacks, the German Federal Prosecutor in Karlsruhe said Tuesday.

The man was arrested in Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, last Thursday. He is now expected to be extradited to Germany, where a federal investigative judge will determine whether he will remain in custody.

The suspect is alleged to have received his assignment this year to collect information in Berlin about Jewish sites and specific individuals.

According to the magazine Der Spiegel, German authorities believe a special unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued orders to prepare attacks in Berlin.

The suspect reportedly had photographed several buildings in June, including the headquarters of the German-Israel Society, a secular organization with branches across the country, and another building where the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany reportedly visits on occasion.

Swift reactions came from the heads of both organizations.

Central Council chair Josef Schuster told Spiegel magazine that the arrest was a “wake up call to those who continue to downplay the hatred and annihilationist ideology of the mullah regime toward Israel and Jews around the world.”

Iran’s plans “show the terrorist nature of this regime,” Green Party politician Volker Beck,  president of the German-Israeli Society, said.

Iran has long been suspected of carrying out espionage on Jews and Jewish sites in Germany.

In late 2017, Germany’s foreign ministry formally admonished the Iranian government over the case of a Pakistani-born student sentenced to more than four years in prison here for spying on former German parliament member Reinhold Robbe, who had headed the German Israeli Society through 2015.

More recently, several prominent Jewish individuals in Germany have received police protection based on intelligence about Iranian lists of potential targets. For security reasons, the individuals did not wish to reveal their names.