Overview
- The Berlin Higher Regional Court, which delivered its verdict Wednesday, sentenced four men to between four-and-a-half and six years for belonging to the foreign terrorist group Hamas, with one also convicted of weapons possession.
- The judges found the men acted as overseas operatives who created or dismantled hidden weapons caches in Poland, Bulgaria, and Denmark for planned attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets in Europe.
- The defendants denied any Hamas role, and the lead defendant said a visit to a Bulgarian site involved private arms trading, which the court rejected.
- Federal prosecutors had sought five to seven years in prison, and the panel issued slightly lower terms after a year-long trial.
- Covert probes began after an intelligence tip that followed the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the men were arrested in December 2023, and a related inquiry has since led to eight more arrests linked to alleged Hamas weapons procurement across Europe.