The German Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday brought charges against four alleged members of Hamas, arrested late last year, for membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
The office in the western city of Karlsruhe said they have been active for years as foreign operatives of Hamas and “held important positions within the organization with direct links to leaders of the military wing.”
Three of the men were arrested in the German capital Berlin and one in the Dutch city of Rotterdam last December. They have been in pre-trial custody since then.
The men are accused, among other things, of being involved in establishing and maintaining weapons depots for Hamas in Europe.
The prosecutor’s statement said the militia members set up the storage sites in various European countries some time ago in order to prepare for possible attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe.
“The association considered the Israeli embassy in Berlin, the US air base in Rammstein or the area around the Tempelhof airport in Berlin to be possible targets,” it said.
According to the statement, one of the men established a depot of ammunition and firearms in Bulgaria in early 2019. A few months later he allegedly cleared a weapons stash in Denmark and brought a pistol from it to Germany.
He reportedly travelled to Bulgaria again in August 2023 to check on the depot.
“Between June and December 2023, all of the accused, in varying combinations, set out from Berlin on multiple occasions to search for a cache of weapons in Poland. Ultimately, they were unable to locate it,” the prosecutor’s statement read.
