BERLIN: A Pakistani man accused of spying for Iran went on trial in Germany on Wednesday for allegedly searching out potential attack targets for the Revolutionary Guards.
The accused, named only as 31-year-old Haidar Syed M, remained silent – “out of fear”, according to his defence lawyer. He is accused of espionage “against Germany and another NATO member”, France, for the Quds Force, the foreign operations wing of the elite Revolutionary Guards. Prosecutors charged he had compiled dossiers on possible attack targets – a German lawmaker who is the former head of a German-Israeli organisation, and a French-Israeli professor of economics.
Investigators found detailed dossiers on the men and their daily routines, with hundreds of photos and video clips, the Berlin court was told.
They allegedly detailed the targets’ homes and work places, various access routes to them, as well as information on security guards, surveillance cameras and nearby police stations. A representative of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, which handles counterespionage, said it was alerted to Haidar by a “reliable” source. The service suspected the Quds Force was preparing for a possible future conflict with the United States and Israel, when it could hit targets in Europe in a form of “asymmetrical warfare”.
