Hamburg court jails two men over Iranian-directed plot to kill Jewish leaders in Germany

At a McDonald’s in Denmark, Ali Sarwari and Tawab Mohsini shook hands on plans for murder, according to the case that later came before Hamburg’s highest regional court.

Sarwari, a 54-year-old Dane with Afghan roots from Aarhus, had received direct orders in early 2025 from Iran’s al-Quds Brigades, the foreign arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, to plan antisemitic attacks in Germany. He recruited Mohsini, a 42-year-old Afghan man from Aarhus, and tasked him with obtaining a hitman and a weapon, the prosecution said.

The intended targets included Josef Schuster, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society and a Green Party politician. Sarwari also made preparations for an arson attack on a kosher deli in Berlin.

The plans did not proceed to an attack. Danish Police Intelligence Service, known as PET, discovered the plot and supplied information that led German authorities to the men.

Danish authorities arrested both men in Aarhus in June 2025, and they were subsequently extradited to Germany. Germany’s Foreign Office then summoned Iran’s ambassador in response to the discovery of the alleged state-sponsored attack plans.

After a three-month trial, the Hamburg court convicted both defendants of espionage and attempted murder. Judge Petra Wende-Spors described the offences as ‘terrorist activities orchestrated by Iran.’

The court sentenced Sarwari to eight and a half years in prison and Mohsini to four and a half years.

Beck called the verdict ‘a wake-up call for German security policy.’ After charges against the men became public, he had urged Berlin to expel Iran’s ambassador and consular officials.

Iran’s embassy in Berlin rejected the charges, calling them ‘unfounded allegations made at the behest of Iran’s enemies.’