Deutsche Welleسرویسهای مخفی ایران در آلمان چقدر خطرناک هستند؟
While Iran’s rulers attempt to crush the popular uprising with extreme brutality and ruthlessness, exiled Iranians around the world fear for the fate of their family members and friends. According to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, around 295,000 people with Iranian roots live in Germany (as of 2024). In 2021, almost half of them had a German passport.
Along with worrying about their relatives back in Iran, many of them are also concerned about their own safety. This is especially true if they are politically active or work in journalism. Such individuals can quickly become targets of Iranian intelligence services, which are very active — and dangerous — in Germany, according to the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
“It can be assumed that Iranian intelligence services will increase their persecution abroad, partly due to current events,” wrote the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, in response to a query from DW.
It added: “Transnational repression measures by Iranian intelligence services against dissident organizations and individuals from the diaspora include targeted espionage, discrediting, intimidation, threats, and even the use of violence.” Their aim, the statement added, is to suppress opposition activities and coerce cooperation in order to spy on the regime opposition abroad.
Iran military analyst: Strike must target security apparatus
Kidnappings and targeted killings
In light of the escalating violence of the Islamic regime in Iran, such assessments are frighteningly real. Several thousand people are said to have already been killed, though the information on arrests and deaths cannot be independently verified.
It is also difficult to gauge whether Iranian intelligence services are now stepping up their activities in Germany in the immediate aftermath of the mass protests. In principle, what the BfV has been observing for many years still applies: “Espionage activities by Iranian intelligence services often serve to plan state-sponsored terrorist activities, including the abduction or even killing of the target person.”
German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd kidnapped and killed in 2020
The BfV has also warned that people living in Germany could fall victim to such operations, referring specifically to the case of a man with Iranian and German citizenship. During a trip to a country neighboring Iran in 2020, Jamshid Sharmahd was abducted and, based on initial reports, executed four years later. Later reports indicated that he had died shortly before the planned execution.
The BfV sees a pattern at work here: “It can be assumed that Iran will continue to arrest Western nationals under fabricated pretexts and use them as leverage in a kind of ‘hostage policy.'”
In light of such fates, the BfV has often warned against traveling to Iran and neighboring countries: “Iranian intelligence services use offensive and aggressive approaches to establish contact with people entering Iran, which can also lead to detention and interrogation lasting several days.”
We cannot trust anything Iran says: Gazelle Sharmahd
The German government responded to the death of Jamshid Sharmahd in 2024 by closing the three Iranian consulates general in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, and Hamburg. Some of the diplomatic staff had to leave Germany. Iran’s only diplomatic presence in Germany is now its embassy in Berlin.
The closure of the consulates is likely to have made it more difficult for the regime to deploy spies disguised as diplomats in Germany, a practice that is widespread internationally. The long-standing economic sanctions on Iran mean that espionage abroad is particularly important for the country to find expertise for its controversial nuclear program.
Cyber-attacks also target opposition figures
According to the BfV, cyberespionage has been part of the Iranian secret service’s repertoire since at least 2013. Economic interests play just as much a role in this as attempts to intimidate those whom the regime considers its worst enemies: People who are committed to freedom of expression and human rights.
“This involves attacking the private email and social media accounts of members of the diaspora. Iranian intelligence services can then use the stolen data to create movement profiles of those affected, investigate their everyday lives, and uncover their private and professional networks,” the BfV told DW.
Israeli and Jewish institutions may be attacked
Iran’s intelligence activities in Germany go far beyond industrial espionage and spying on the Iranian opposition diaspora.
In November 2022, a school located in the neighborhood of the synagogue in Bochum (North Rhine-Westphalia) was damaged by an incendiary device. The following year, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court sentenced a man to several years in prison for the crime. The court found that the attack had been planned by an Iranian government agency.
This article was originally written in German.
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