Hamburg court sentences two IRGC Quds Force spies to 8.5 and 4.5 years in prison

The Hamburg Higher Regional Court on Thursday, 15 October 2026, convicted two men living in Denmark of spying for the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and of attempted complicity in murder and arson. The main defendant, a 54-year-old Danish citizen of Afghan descent named "Ali S." in the indictment, was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison, and his 43-year-old accomplice to four years and six months.

The court found it proven that Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society and a former Green Party member of parliament, had been identified and put under surveillance. The sentences matched what the German Federal Prosecutor's Office had requested; the lawyers of both defendants had called for their acquittal.

Orders from Quds Force officers

According to the German Federal Prosecutor's Office, the main defendant took his orders directly from officers of the Quds Force, the IRGC's overseas arm. According to the indictment, he was preparing to set fire to a kosher grocery shop in Berlin and tried to recruit his accomplice for an attack on Volker Beck; the two eventually agreed to find someone else to carry out the murder.

At the trial, an officer of the Federal Criminal Police Office testified about the long-term wiretapping of the main defendant's phones and the tracking of his trips. According to this witness, he had travelled to Iran several times and met people linked to the Quds Force. Searches for Josef Schuster's address and pictures of Volker Beck were found on his phone, and officers had photographed him next to one of Berlin's kosher shops. Another witness said he had asked his daughter whether she knew anyone who would set fire to a Jewish-owned shop for 30,000 Danish kroner, about 4,000 euros.

The Islamic Republic's transnational repression in Europe

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office filed the indictment in this case in April–May 2026 with the state security chamber of the Hamburg court. The verdict comes as similar cases are under way in other European countries; at the spy trial in London, too, the prosecutor spoke of money being promised for identifying Persian-speaking journalists.

Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, also warned not long ago that the Islamic Republic has set its sights on harder targets such as British military bases. Reports also point to a change of command at Unit 840 of the Quds Force, the unit responsible for operations against opponents abroad.

The Hamburg court found it proven that the IRGC's Quds Force had placed the leaders of Germany's Jewish community under surveillance with a view to assassinating them.