Denmark arrests man for spying on Berlin’s Jewish community for Iran

Published on
01/07/2025 – 13:36 GMT+2

A man suspected of gathering information on Berlin Jewish community’s locations and individuals for Iranian intelligence, possibly to carry out attacks, has been arrested in Denmark, German prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the Danish national, identified only as Ali S in line with German privacy regulations, was arrested on Thursday in the city of Aarhus.

The man was tasked by an Iranian intelligence service early this year with gathering information on “Jewish localities and specific Jewish individuals” in Berlin, prosecutors said.

He spied on three properties in June, “presumably in preparation of further intelligence activities in Germany, possibly including terrorist attacks on Jewish targets,” prosecutors said.

The suspect is accused of working for an intelligence service of a foreign power. The information leading to his arrest came from Germany’s domestic intelligence service, prosecutors said.

The suspect will be brought before a judge in Germany to determine whether he is kept in custody pending formal charges after extradition from Denmark.

It was not immediately clear when that would happen.

Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has a long history of tense relations with Tehran, though it has been one of the three leading European powers trying to engage Iran in diplomacy over its ongoing nuclear programme.

In October, Germany ordered the closure of all three Iranian consulates in the country in response to the Tehran judiciary’s announcement of the execution of Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmah, who was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces.

The move left Tehran with the embassy in Berlin as its only diplomatic outpost in Germany.

Additional sources • AP