Iran Summons German Ambassador
Iran has summoned the German ambassador in Tehran. The reason is a verdict by the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf against a German-Iranian. He is said to have planned an arson attack on a synagogue in Bochum.
Following a verdict against a German-Iranian for planning an arson attack on a synagogue in Bochum, Iran has summoned the German ambassador. Tehran is protesting against the “unfounded accusation” by the German judiciary and the summoning of the Iranian Chargé d’Affaires in Berlin, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said. Ambassador Hans-Udo Muzel has been summoned, reported the state news agency IRNA.
Plans for the attack allegedly originate from Iran
The background to this was a verdict in the trial concerning an arson attack on a school in Bochum, which was actually intended for a synagogue. The Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf sentenced a 36-year-old German-Iranian to two years and nine months in prison on Tuesday. According to the court’s findings, the planning of the attack was traced back to “state Iranian entities”.
The court considered it proven that the accused had arranged the attack on a synagogue in November 2022 with a “mastermind” in Iran, but cancelled the execution on site out of “fear of discovery” and threw the incendiary device at a neighboring school instead.
Furthermore, it assumed that an arson attack and shots fired at the rabbi’s house in Essen were related and that it was a coordinated action to create insecurity in Germany.
As a result, the German Foreign Office summoned the Iranian Chargé d’Affaires, according to its own statements on Tuesday. “We will not tolerate externally controlled violence in Germany,” the ministry stated in Berlin.