German officials and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)—the main opposition coalition to Iran’s regime—have stated that Iranians living in Germany are facing growing harassment from the regime’s security apparatus. According to them, the Iranian regime threatens Iranian citizens and pressures them to provide information about other exiles.
German intelligence services consistently warn about pressure and espionage by the Iranian regime against Iranian exile groups in Germany. The German domestic intelligence agency had also reported in its annual report last year that this threat remains high.
More than 100 cases of pressure on Iranian nationals in less than one year
Javad Dabiran, spokesperson for the NCRI—the largest political coalition opposing Iran’s regime—stated that he is aware of more than 100 cases of pressure on Iranian citizens by the regime in Germany since the beginning of this year.
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He added that these cases usually involved pressure to provide information about other Iranian exiles.
Dabiran said these cases demonstrate an “unprecedented escalation” of the Iranian regime’s intelligence activities in Germany.
According to official statistics, Germany hosts about 144,000 Iranians.
Inside Iran, human rights groups and activists have reported repression of political dissidents. These instances of harassment—including arrests and other forms of pressure—have increased especially since the attacks during the twelve-day war.
On October 21, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, stated that the Iranian regime uses a wide range of tactics to suppress opponents and critics abroad.
According to her, these tactics include “death threats, attempts to steal information, smear campaigns, and cyberattacks.”
The NCRI stated that its members have, in some cases, contacted German police to report harassment.
In one such case, a forty-year-old Iranian Christian in the city of Essen in western Germany said that after participating in a demonstration in Brussels last September, his sister and brothers in Iran were threatened by the regime’s intelligence services.
In August, the U.S. State Department announced that the United States and thirteen of its allies had condemned increasing threats from the Iranian regime’s intelligence services in a joint statement, calling these threats a “clear violation of national sovereignty.”
This statement was issued on Thursday, July 31, by the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden.
Earlier, some of these countries had separately reported the presence of Iranian regime influence networks within their borders.
The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) warned in a report that foreign governments, including Iran’s regime, have become increasingly bold in their efforts to silence and intimidate individuals and groups inside the United Kingdom.
