A German court has sentenced two men to several years in prison in the first trial of members of the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah in Germany.
Judge Petra Wende-Spors from the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg said that it had been proved in court that Hezbollah was a terrorist organization abroad in the criminal sense, and that the two defendants were members of this organization. "The answer to both questions is a crystal-clear yes," said the judge.
A 50-year-old Lebanese man was sentenced to five and a half years in prison, and the second defendant, a 56-year-old German-Lebanese man, to three years. They can appeal.
The two defendants were detained on May 10 last year. The 50-year-old had regularly appeared as a preacher and "travelling sheikh," for example at the al-Mustafa community in Bremen, which was banned in 2022.
According to the court, the 56-year-old was also active as a foreign functionary of Hezbollah. From 2009, he was a member and from 2012 chairman of the al-Mustafa community.
Hezbollah, literally "party of God" in Arabic, has been banned from operating in Germany since April 2020.