German Die Welt Daily released a video clip on a masque in Hamburg used by the Iranian agents as a center for espionage against the Iranian opposition:
Marco Haze, spokesman for the bureau:
The bureau is tasked with monitoring the extremist activities and inform the public, as much as possible, with their actions. Since 1993 that we published the first report on the Islamic center, we have always maintained that the Islamic center in Hamburg has been the headquarter for the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities in Germany and Europe.
Christoph D Veris, German federal assembly member:
We are dealing with the key personnel in this masque that are under direct control of the Iranian leadership and assembly of guardians. Some of the personnel here are members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The key problem is that the Iranian regime is not a democratic system by any means. However, they have a direct presence in Germany. Just recently we witnessed the ceremony to mourn Ghasem Soleimani’s death. The same person that had been responsible for numerous mass killings. Yet these people worship him in this center. Such a ritual has no legitimacy to be held in a place of worship.
Marco Haze, spokesman for the bureau:
We are well informed that the Iranian intelligence services are very active here. They have been involved in collecting intelligence on political, economic, social, and opposition groups affairs.
Hanif Mahootchian, a human rights activist in Hamburg:
My name is Hanif Mahootchian. I am a 23 years old law student residing in Hamburg. My parents were forced to migrated from Iran when they were even younger than me now. As a member of the Democratic Youth Activist Organization I have been collaborating with the National Council of Resistance of Iran on exposing the Iranian regime and holding rallies and other activities. I strive to be the voice of my compatriots in Iran as they face very grave dangers for any decent as was seen in the recent demonstrations in Iran. We are an extension of our brothers and sisters who are struggling for freedom in Iran. I have been threatened on numerous occasions, at school, at work or otherwise by these thugs calling me an infidel, a traitor, and alike as I have opposed the regime in Iran. I am certain that the Iranian regime have agents present in Germany that will stop at nothing and will do everything against the opposition members abroad.
Reporter:
What has been clear without any doubt, is that the Iranian regime has been monitoring the Iranians abroad and in Germany. The bureau for protection of constitution in Germany has warned that the danger for the Iranian opposition residing in Germany and Europe has raised since 2019. There are some evidences that the Islamic center in Hamburg is very active in this regard.
Hanif Mahootchian:
I worked in a business center then. One day two people, one of whom has had very close ties with the Iranian consulate and the masque came to visit me at my work. I think they know who I was. The person with ties to the regime asked me why I did not go to the masque. I replied that I did not think the place was a legitimate masque. I added that just because the place is painted in blue and has the name of Imam Ali on the entrance does not qualify it as a masque. I further added that I do not believe in the stuff that you preach there. He told me that I needed to forget about the past. While hinting of the executions that took place in Iran, he said that this was like getting rid of the flies that were making noise in the room! He threatened that I needed to be careful, If I did not want the past to repeat itself. I did not want to make a commotion at my workplace, so I stayed calm. However, I did change my job after that incident as I felt threatened.
Reporter:
In 2018, Belgium police foiled a bombing plot against the opposition’s annual event in Paris. A suspect was arrested in that incident.
Hanif Mahootchian:
All the members of a family that had come to visit a member of our society in Germany were arrested upon their return to Iran.
Reporter (visiting the Islamic Center in Hamburg):
What do the officials of the Blue Mosque think about these allegations? We are meeting with Mohammad Ali Mufti Moufatteh, the head of the Islamic Center of Hamburg, and we want to talk to him about these allegations.
Reporter:
Mr. Moufatteh, you are the highest Iranian cleric in Germany. How did you earn this position?
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh (Head of the Islamic Center of Hamburg):
Because my father, the martyr Ayatollah Moufatteh, was one of Ayatollah Khamenei’s old friends, he knew me from the past, in the seminary course, at the higher levels of the seminary, which is the stage of ijtihad. I spent two years in the seminary lessons of Ayatollah Khamenei. The Islamic Center of Hamburg is the representative of the Shiite leaders in Germany and in Europe. But the Islamic Center of Hamburg has relationship with the government and the country of Iran. Never has the Islamic Center of Hamburg had any connections with the Iranian government before or after the revolution.
Reporter:
You are educated and sent by the highest spiritual authority in Iran, but apparently independent of politics! How can such a thing be imagined?
Reporter:
A mourning ceremony was held for Soleimani here in January, why was it so important for you as the head of this center to hold this ceremony?
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh:
“In fact, for a team, not only for Mr. Soleimani, for a team that was killed during wars against ISIS.”
Reporter:
Was Soleimani a hero to you?
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh:
As someone who worked hard to bring peace to the Middle East, he is respected as such, and we respect him as such.
Mohammad Al Hosseini:
We appreciate such a person for his courage and effort, and he was certainly a great figure.
Reporter:
Peace in the world? Let’s look at Soleimani’s background. Soleimani was a ruthless warlord. He was the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, which deliberately created terrorist militias such as Hezbollah in the Middle East. Soleimani not only failed to establish peace in the Middle East but destabilized many countries as a mission for the Iranian regime.
Reporter:
We also talked to the Iranian opposition. They feel threatened by representatives of the Iranian regime, and some say their relatives are intimidated once they return to Iran.
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh:
I do not know about these issues. I have also heard that such things are said. The people here are raising these issues. But to what extent is it true or not? I do not know, but what we believe is that a person should not be mistreated simply because he has a particular belief or is intellectually opposed.”
Reporter:
We had a conversation with a young Iranian, and he gave us the address of your Center. In 2017, at his workplace in Hamburg, he was harassed and threatened by people from your Center.
[The reporter shows the photo]
Here are the persons from your Center. Do you know them?
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh:
Yes, I know them. They are members of the Center. I do not know whether the photos from behind our members. And I have no information about what happened in 2017. Now, even if what you said is true, it means that if someone from the Center has been involved, he is unaware of the Center, and he has certainly been reprimanded by the Center.”
Reporter:
Amir Hossein Moradi, Saeed Tamjidi, and Mohammad Rajabi have been sentenced to death in Iran. Do you agree with these sentences and do you confirm these sentences?
Mullah Mohammad Ali Moufatteh:
I really do not know what the truth is. If I had, I could talk then. I cannot when I do not have. I do not know the truth of their crime. So I do not know anything.
Reporter:
There have been many reports and demonstrations against the death penalty of the three young Iranians around the world, for example here in Berlin, but Moufatteh said he did not know anything about it and did not want to distance himself from it.
Reporter:
Iran’s image in Germany is heavily influenced by the news we receive from Iran, and when we hear that artists and women are not allowed to perform on their own, when we hear that a woman who danced on Instagram is imprisoned, when We hear that young people are being executed, such news gives us a very negative image of Iran.
Mohammad Al-Husseini:
As a theologian, I can briefly tell you that there are laws that must be enforced, and such laws exist in all countries, perhaps for example in Iran and Germany, anyone who lives in a country or for some time, he has to respect the laws and obey them.
Hanif Mahoutchian:
Why does the German government accept us or our parents or those my age who flee from Iran to Germany as asylum seekers? But at the same time, it also allows the Iranian government institutions here to continue their threatening activities? We are dealing with the murderers of our families here; I am sure that all the decision-makers in the German government have already heard what I am saying. They have read the reports of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in which it is written that the members and supporters of the National Council of Resistance are under very close monitoring of and threats posed by the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Intelligence in Germany. I am sure that those in the local state government who decided to extend the contract with the Islamic Center of Hamburg have also read the reports of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Nevertheless, they extended the contract despite the threats imposed by the Center against the Iranian opposition groups and their supporters.
