On December 19, the German Foreign Ministry summoned an official from the Iranian regime’s embassy in Berlin for the alleged involvement of “regime institutions” in a plot to set fire to a synagogue in the city of Bochum.
The High Court in Dusseldorf confirmed on Tuesday that a conspiracy to set fire to a synagogue in Bochum last year had taken place with the cooperation of Iranian regime institutions.
According to the court’s announcement, “Babak J.,” who was identified as the perpetrator of a November 2022 school fire in Bochum, and a 36-year-old German-Iranian citizen, received orders from an individual inside Iran. The primary target of the arson attack was a synagogue located next to the school, not the school itself.
The High Court in Dusseldorf stated that “Babak J.” attempted to involve one of his acquaintances in the attack on the synagogue, but that acquaintance informed the police after refusing to cooperate with him. The suspect, unable to set the synagogue on fire, threw an incendiary device into the adjacent school instead.
According to the German magazine Der Spiegel, the suspect has been sentenced to 33 months in prison by the High Court in Dusseldorf.
Following the summoning of the Iranian regime official in Berlin, the German Foreign Ministry emphasized that there will be no tolerance for any violence carried out by foreigners in Germany, and the government will not allow the lives of Jews in thecountry to be attacked or endangered.
On March 5, 2023, The Washington Post reported, citing intelligence and security officials, that the mastermind behind a series of recent attacks on Jews and synagogues in Germany is an Iranian-German citizen named Ramin Yektaparast, who fled from Germany to Iran. According to the report, Yektaparast had been in contact with “Babak J.”
According to the report, Mr. Yektaparast had been running a brothel in the city of Leverkusen for a while and, due to his familiarity with criminal gangs in Germany, effectively acted as a remote contractor for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in achieving their objectives in Germany.
