Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat

Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat
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Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat

Germany Investigates Spy Activity in Europe Linked to Former Iranian Diplomat

Germany is conducting extensive investigations to track down Iranian intelligence activity on its soil, revealed documents retrieved from ongoing probes.

Spy activity connected to Tehran is being traced through ledgers collected from a former Iranian diplomat’s car.

Asadollah Asadi had worked as a diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Vienna until he was arrested in Bavaria in 2018 for involvement in plotting the attempted bombing of an assembly organized by the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) outside Paris.

German authorities had handed him over to Belgium, where his trial is currently taking place in the port city of Antwerp alongside the trial of a Belgian-Iranian couple who were arrested for attempting to stage the attack.

When Asadi was arrested on July 1, 2018, the German police discovered many documents, including a black ledger in his car, with coded dots, which seem to be instructions on making bombs, a report by German TV’s Channel One said.

Instructions found in the black ledger are believed to have been intended for the arrested couple, whose verdict is expected to be announced this February.

The Channel One report said that the couple received hundreds of thousands of euros in the past several years for their cooperation with the Iranian secret service.

Among other documents discovered in Asadi’s belongings is a green checkered ledger with 200 pages, with receipts that show the diplomat has distributed cash among some individuals in different European countries.

The green ledger has 289 Latin and Persian notes, which mention tourist attractions, stores, hotels, and restaurants, with times and dates. These spots are believed to have been visited by Asadi.

German agents have figured out that this information involves around 11 countries including France, Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Netherlands, and Italy, but there are also 144 notes about locations in Germany.

One note points to the entrance of the Hamburg Islamic Center, which is under German internal security surveillance. According to German intelligence, the center is used by the Iranian regime to “export revolution” and is known for supporting Lebanese militias.

When interrogated by German authorities, Asadi defended himself by saying that he was merely a tourist and that the sites found in the green ledger are for touristic spots he used to visit accompanied by his children.

Asadi, however, had been carrying several receipts that indicate suspicious cash payments. The recipients who have signed the receipts all have very common Iranian names and their identities are still unknown.

Some have received payments between 2,500-5,000 euros. Another individual has confirmed receiving a laptop. German police speculate that the payments are for espionage.

Sources at the NCRI have confirmed reported findings to Asharq Al-Awsat.

“The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence has a network of agents in Europe that are managed with the help of Iranian embassies, and the misuse of diplomatic capabilities,”Javad Dabiran, a spokesman for the Iranian opposition group, told Asharq Al-Awsat

“Asadi is the head of Iranian intelligence in Europe and used to run a network of spies,” Dabiran confirmed, adding that three agents linked to the ex-diplomat now face trial in Belgium.

“At least 40% of Asadi's meetings with his network of agents were held in Germany,” he noted.

Dabiran warned that there are various Iranian terrorist sleeper cells and spy rings across Europe and that they are handled by Iranian embassies.



Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

 Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
TT
20

Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

 Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)

Russia on Thursday suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than two decades as a terrorist organization, in a move that paves the way for Moscow to normalize ties with the leadership of Afghanistan.

No country currently recognizes the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building relations with the movement, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.

The Taliban was outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003. State media said the Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the ban with immediate effect.

Russia sees a need to work with the Taliban as it faces a major security threat from extremist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

"Russia aims to build mutually beneficial ties with Afghanistan in all areas, including the fight against drugs and terrorism," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that Moscow was grateful to Afghanistan for military operations against the local branch of ISIS.

Moscow also aims to strengthen trade, business and investment ties with Kabul, leveraging Afghanistan's strategic position for future energy and infrastructure projects, the ministry statement said.

In March 2024, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by ISIS. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan.

Western diplomats say the Taliban's path towards wider international recognition is blocked until it changes course on women's rights. The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian.