Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned German Ambassador Axel Dittmann on September 24 to protest Berlin's accusation that Tehran was behind a plot to assassinate two leaders of Germany's Jewish community, according to the IRNA news agency.
The move came after Germany summoned Iranian Ambassador Majid Nili Ahmadabadi the same day, citing Tehran's involvement in a plan to kill two pro-Israel figures.
In a statement, Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected the accusations, calling them "baseless political accusations" against Iran. It accused the "Zionist regime and some Western countries" of routinely leveling security allegations at Iran, and criticized efforts to "dress up baseless political accusations in a judicial veneer" as undermining the credibility of Germany's own judicial system.
Earlier, on September 21, a Hamburg city court convicted two men, one a Danish national and the other an Afghan national, of planning attacks on Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Society.
Under the ruling, the Danish man (partly identified as Ali Hassan S) was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison, while the Afghan man received four years and six months as an accomplice. The judge said Iranian intelligence directed the two men, and both were arrested in Denmark last year before being extradited to Germany.
Germany's Foreign Ministry said on X that the Iranian ambassador had been summoned and stressed that Berlin will not tolerate any threats against Germany's free society. It said assassination plots would face legal consequences and declared that attacks on Jewish life and those who protect it are unacceptable anywhere, especially on German soil.
When the accusations were first made, Iran's embassy in Berlin issued a statement rejecting what it called "baseless accusations made at the behest of Iran's enemies."
