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Raids across Germany target suspected Iranian spies
[DW] Germany-wide police raids have been carried out on suspected Iranian spies, thought to be members of the al-Quds Brigade. Iran has been linked in the past to spying, assassinating dissidents and targeting Israelis.German authorities on Tuesday conducted searches of homes and businesses belonging to 10 suspected Iranian spies. The Federal Prosecutors Office ordered the searches after receiving a tip from Germany's domestic intelligence agency. The suspects are believed to have spied on persons and institutions "on behalf of an intelligence entity associated with Iran," the prosecutor's office said. No arrests were made during the raids, which were carried out in Baden-Wurttemberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Berlin. The German magazine Focus, which first reported on the searches, said that the 10 individuals were suspected members of the al-Quds Brigade, the external operations arm of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC). Iranian agents are believed to regularly spy on Israelis, Jewish institutions, Iranian dissidents and other targets abroad. Focus reported that the 10 persons are suspected of spying on Israeli and Jewish targets. Germany authorities have not confirmed the report. Long history of Iranian espionage Earlier this month, Germany summoned Iran's ambassador in Berlin after a 31-year-old Pak student was convicted of spying for Iran on Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician Reinhold Robbe. Robbe was the former head of the German-Israel Friendship Society. The Islamic Theocratic Republicand its Lebanese Shiite ally, Hezbollah, have long been accused of carrying out multiple deadly attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets abroad. Last April, federal prosecutors filed charges against two men suspected of spying on the opposition People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) on behalf of Iranian intelligence. The Gay Paree-based MEK seeks to overthrow Iran's theocratic government and is widely disliked inside the country, where it is labeled a terrorist organization. The Iranian government blamed the group for stirring up unrest earlier this month. Formerly listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and United States, the MEK has also been accused of carrying out covert operations on behalf of Israel and the United States. Iran has been linked to the liquidation of multiple dissidents, mostly Kurds and MEK members, throughout Europe. In 1992, four Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders were assassinated in a Berlin restaurant by Iranian agents. The liquidation in Berlin, and another three years earlier against Kurdish dissidents in Austria, occurred at a time when the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan was leading a low-level insurgency in Iran.
A Quds Force-affiliated agent pleaded guilty in 2012 to plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, DC. In 1992 three Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders and their translator were rubbed out at a Greek restaurant in Berlin. The shooting was believed to have been ordered and carried out by Iran. Two Iranian men and a Lebanese citizens were found guilty of the crime and sentenced to life in prison. Two of them were later released from prison in 2007. The same year a series of kabooms in Bankgok, Thailand, injured five people in what Thai authorities said was a failed attempt  Curses! Foiled again! to target Israeli diplomats. Two Iranians were locked away Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! and convicted over the bombings, including one who lost his legs when a grenade he threw at pursuing police bounced back at him. Arrest warrants were issued for several other Iranian nationals, some of whom were believed to have escaped to Iran.
According to the Kan report, the al-Quds Force had tried to recruit non-Iranian Shiites ‐ primarily those with European citizenship ‐ to establish a terror cell to carry out attacks throughout the continent. Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, told Kan that "the affair should raise a red flag not only in Germany, but in all of Europe." "The time has come for the Germans and the Europeans to understand what is hidden behind the Iranian smile of recent months," the ambassador added. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-01-17 |
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