Germany on Wednesday arrested two suspected members of Hezbollah for their alleged involvement with the Iran-backed Lebanese group.
Lebanese citizen Hassan M and German-Lebanese dual national Abdul-Latif W are accused of organising Hezbollah activities in northern Germany.
They were held on arrest warrants that accuse them of belonging to a foreign terrorist group.
Anti-Israel Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist organisation in Germany and all its activities were banned in 2020.
Both men were also linked to a group called the Al Mustafa Society, which was banned in Germany in 2022 because of alleged connections to Hezbollah.
Abdul Latif W is suspected of belonging to an elite Hezbollah unit since at least 2004, prosecutors allege.
Prosecutors claim he ran the Al Mustafa Society along Hezbollah-inspired lines in the north-western city of Bremen and reported to superiors in Lebanon.
Abdul Latif W is said to have founded a youth group and arranged sermons by Hezbollah members and preachers with similar ideologies.
It is alleged he went to Syria in 2015 and 2016 to “strengthen the will to fight” of suspected extremist comrades.
Hezbollah is close to Iran and is banned in Germany for its anti-Israel stance. EPA
Hassan M is said to have joined Hezbollah by 2016 at the latest and preached in the Al Mustafa Society.
Prosecutors said he oversaw contacts with Lebanese groups in Germany in order to “support them with organisational and ideological issues”.
A federal judge was to decide whether the two men would be held in custody.
Several groups in Germany have been raided or shut down because of alleged links to Hezbollah.
The anti-Hezbollah decree in 2020 included a ban on displaying the group’s symbols in public.
It banned all activities by Hezbollah “regardless of whether it presents itself as a political, social or military structure”.
Some countries make a distinction between Hezbollah’s military wing and its role in party politics in Lebanon.
Britain banned Hezbollah in its entirety in 2019. The US has had it on a terror list since 1997.
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened. He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia. Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”. Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
