BERLIN (AP) — Germany protested to Iran on Tuesday after a court ruling implicated the Islamic republic in a plan to attack a synagogue last year.
The Duesseldorf state court convicted a German-Iranian man of attempted arson and agreeing to commit arson and sentenced him to two years and nine months in prison, German news agency dpa reported.
Judges found that the man threw an incendiary device at a school in the western city of Bochum in November 2022 because the neighboring synagogue appeared too well secured. The defendant denied planning to attack the synagogue. The school received minor damage.
The court found the defendant had been tasked with the attack by a former Hells Angels member who had gone to Iran, and that Iranian authorities were behind the latter man.
Germany’s Foreign Ministry wrote Tuesday on social platform X that “according to the Duesseldorf state court, the planned attack on a synagogue in Bochum in November 2022 stems from an Iranian state institution.”
The ministry said the Iranian charge d’affaires was summoned to discuss the matter.
“It is intolerable that Jewish life was to be attacked here,” it added. “We will tolerate no foreign-steered violence in Germany.”
The ministry said the court’s detailed reasons for the verdict will be important in determining “consequences and (the) next steps,” including at the European Union level.