Higher Regional Court - Hezbollah is a terrorist organization: Imprisonment for two officials
For the first time, a German court has convicted two functionaries of the Lebanese Hezbollah for membership in a terrorist organization abroad. In this case, two questions had to be determined, stated the chairwoman of the Senate for State Protection at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg, Petra Wende-Spors: Whether Hezbollah is a criminal terrorist organization abroad and whether the two defendants were members of this organization. "Both questions are clearly answerable with yes", the judge declared on Friday.
A 50-year-old Lebanese was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, and the second defendant, a 56-year-old German-Lebanese, to three years. The court thus met the demand of the Federal Prosecutor's Office. The defendants had demanded acquittal. An appeal can be filed against the judgment.
Defendants active in banned association in Bremen
The two defendants were arrested on May 10 of the previous year in the Lower Saxony districts of Aurich and Cuxhaven. The 50-year-old, according to the court's conviction, mainly took care of Lebanese associations in Northern Germany. He had been a member of Hezbollah since 2002. Over several years, he regularly appeared as a preacher and "traveling sheikh," for example, at the 2022 banned Al-Mustafa Community in Bremen.
The 56-year-old, according to the court's conviction, was also active as a foreign functionary of Hezbollah. He joined the organization in 2004. From 2009, he was a member and from 2012 the chairman of the Al-Mustafa Community. Both defendants had close ties to the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), which, according to the Constitutional Protection Agency, is controlled by Iran.
Attacks on Israel, US soldiers, and Jewish communities
For the Shia-Islamist Hezbollah ("Party of God"), there has been a designation as a terrorist organization in Germany since April 2020. The organization, founded in 1982, aims to destroy Israel and carries out terrorist attacks on civilians, explained Wende-Spors. She had attacked the Israeli headquarters in the South Lebanon and the US Marines headquarters at Beirut Airport in 1983. In 1992, Hezbollah carried out an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, and in 1994, an attack on the Jewish community in the Argentine capital. In both cases, there were a large number of deaths and injuries. The organization, represented in the Lebanese parliament since 1992, seeks a constitutional theocracy under the rule of Islamic legal scholars.
Children and youth indoctrinated
Hezbollah's ideology is taught to children and youth, as shown by numerous videos and documents, according to the judge. The organization uses various methods to recruit children and youth, including summer camps, schools, and sports clubs. The indoctrination includes the glorification of martyrdom and the incitement of hatred against Israel and Jews. The children are often trained in military exercises and are prepared for combat missions. Hezbollah also uses its media outlets to disseminate its ideology and propaganda to a wider audience.
Hisbollah operates a global support network. The two accused were linkmen to the Hisbollah leadership, stated Wende-Spors. They had supported the jihadist-terrorist activities of the organization. The 56-year-old had for years ideologically educated children and adolescents, preparing their later recruitment as fighters. For this, he had founded a scout group in Bremen in 2018, whose members wore uniforms similar to those of the Hisbollah scouts in Lebanon. The 50-year-old had indoctrinated and paramilitarily trained youths at a leisure camp in Belgium in 2014. Both accused had been in the Syrian civil war area and had taken photos of themselves in uniform and heavily armed. However, there was no evidence of their active participation in combat.
Overwhelming Evidence
The accused were accountable to the Hisbollah foreign department, stated Wende-Spors. Extremely detailed activity reports and other documents such as CVs with the Hisbollah logo and speech scripts were found on secured cell phones and USB sticks. The documents fit together like a puzzle, the evidence was overwhelming. The statements of the accused, who only admitted a proximity to the Shia Amal, a competing organization, were dismissed by the judge as protective statements. "They have obviously tried to tell the Senate a story from One Thousand and One Nights."
Press release from the Federal Ministry of the Interior on Hisbollah Press release from the Bremen Senator for the Interior on the ban of the Al-Mustafa Community Press release on the indictment
- The conviction in this case marks the first time a German court has penalized two Hezbollah functionaries for their involvement in a foreign terrorist organization.
- The sentencing in Hamburg follows the arrest of the two defendants in the Lower Saxony districts of Aurich and Cuxhaven in May of the previous year.
- The 50-year-old Lebanese defendant, who was a member of Hezbollah since 2002, primarily managed Lebanese associations in Northern Germany and delivered sermons at the banned Al-Mustafa Community in Bremen.
- The 56-year-old German-Lebanese defendant, who joined Hezbollah in 2004, held leadership positions within the organization and presided over the Al-Mustafa Community in Bremen.
- The Court of Appeals in Aurich and the Higher Regional Court in Bremen declared Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2019, and the Federal Prosecutor's Office accused the two defendants of participating in a banned association in Bremen.
- The Jewish community in Argentina suffered significant loss of life and injuries in 1992 and 1994 due to Hezbollah's terrorist attacks on Israeli embassies and Jewish communities.
- The two defendants, who had close ties to the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH), were found to have provided support to Hezbollah's leadership and indoctrinated children through scout groups and summer camps, in accordance with the organization's violent ideology.
