On Thursday, a Hamburg court sentenced two men accused of plotting to target Jewish leaders in Germany on behalf of Iran's secret service to multiple years in prison.

Both were found guilty of espionage and attempted murder. One defendant was given a four-and-a-half year sentence, while the other received an eight-and-a-half year sentence as the mastermind of the planned attacks.  

Prosecutors said that one defendant, a 54-year-old Dane with Afghan roots, had received his orders directly from Iran's al-Quds Brigades, the foreign arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The man was said to have recruited his accomplice, a 43-year-old Afghan man living in Denmark, to carry out one of the attacks, or find someone who could.

The 43-year-old was also tasked with finding a weapon with which to carry out one of the attacks.

Beyond targeting two high-profile individuals, the 54-year-old had reportedly made preparations for an arson attack on a kosher deli in Berlin. 

The defendants were arrested by Danish authorities in the city of Aarhus last year and extradited to Germany.

Who were convicted defendants planning to attack?

Among the figures the pair planned to attack was Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the court found.

Another prospective target was Green Party politician Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli society.

Beck called on Berlin to expel Iran's ambassador and consular officials after charges against the men were made public.

"Jewish life and a commitment to the Jewish and democratic state are repeatedly threatened with murder and attacked by the regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran on German soil," he said.

Germany's Foreign Office summoned Iran's ambassador after Danish authorities made the arrests, prompting the Iranian embassy in Berlin to release a statement rejecting what it called "unfounded allegations made at the behest of Iran's enemies."

Edited by: Natalie Muller and Wesley Dockery

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