Germany Summons Iran Ambassador Over Tehran-Backed Synagogue Attack

The German Foreign Ministry has summoned the Iranian ambassador to Berlin over Tehran’s role in an attack on a synagogue in Bochum in November 2022.

According to the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, the attack was carried out by an Iranian state agency, read a statement issued on X by the German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Berlin said it has shared the court’s verdict with its European partners and the EU institutions and is now considering “further steps” with regard to the case.

In December 2023, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court sentenced a 36-year-old German-Iranian, referred to as Babak J., to two years and nine months in prison for his role in the attack.

The charges against him included conspiracy to commit aggravated arson and attempted arson. Court documents reveal that Babak J. made unsuccessful attempts to recruit an acquaintance as an accomplice, who subsequently reported the matter to law enforcement authorities.

The incident in which a molotov cocktail was fired at a school beside the synagogue, resulted in only minor damage to the synagogue. German security officials linked the plot directly to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Babak J. has also been linked to an earlier synagogue attack in the city of Essen. Reports indicated that he had also been planning a third attack on a synagogue in Dortmund, where he was eventually apprehended.

It is one of several Iran-backed attacks over the last year on Jewish or Israeli targets either carried out or foiled, in countries including Greece, Azerbaijan and Cyprus.

Over the past two years, many Iranian political activists and opposition figures have urged Western countries to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization over its role in suppressing dissent in Iran and orchestrating attacks abroad.