The terrorist organization Hamas is not active only in the Gaza Strip. Suspects have been arrested several times in Germany for allegedly procuring weapons. A verdict has now been issued.
Berlin’s Kammergericht has sentenced four men as members of the Islamist group Hamas to prison terms ranging from four and a half to six years. According to the court, the men, aged between 36 and 58, were responsible as so-called foreign operatives for weapons depots belonging to the terrorist organization in several European countries, intended for use in attacks. The allegations brought by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had been confirmed “to the full satisfaction of the Senate,” said presiding judge Doris Husch.
Husch explained that the Berlin state security senate was the first higher regional court in Germany to deal with the question of whether Hamas constitutes a terrorist organization. More than a year after the trial began, the court left no doubt that this was the case. It found the Lebanon-born men guilty of membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
From the court’s perspective, this largely confirmed the allegations made by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Germany’s highest prosecuting authority had requested prison sentences of between five and seven years.
Poland, Bulgaria, and Denmark
According to the judgment, the men were responsible for setting up or dissolving weapons depots in Poland, Bulgaria, and Denmark. Judge Husch said in explaining the verdict that Hamas had made preparations to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish institutions. For that purpose, the terrorist organization had established weapons depots in Europe some time ago.
At the start of the trial in February 2025, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office described it as a pilot case. Federal prosecutor Jochen Weingarten said it was the first time in Germany that individuals had faced charges of participating as members of the foreign terrorist organization Hamas.
The defendants deny being members of Hamas. Lawyers for three of the men each argued for acquittal. The main defendant admitted during the trial that he had visited the weapons cache in Bulgaria. According to his account, however, it concerned “private arms trading.”
Further suspects in pre-trial detention
That had been a mistake, the 43-year-old said in his final statement before the court. However, he strongly denied acting as a Hamas member. His lawyer argued for a conviction only for violating the War Weapons Control Act and for a sentence not exceeding the time his client had already spent in pre-trial detention. The defendants were arrested in December 2023 and have remained in custody since then.
According to its own statements, shortly after Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office received a tip from Germany’s domestic intelligence service concerning a “clandestine weapons-related Hamas operation in Germany.” Covert investigations were then launched. These eventually led to the arrest of the four Lebanon-born suspects.
In recent months, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office has had eight additional suspects arrested in connection with alleged weapons procurement for Hamas. Investigators believe the weapons were intended for murderous attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany and Europe.
At the beginning of October 2025, the Karlsruhe-based authority had three suspected Hamas members arrested in Berlin. By the end of the year, further arrests followed in London, at the German-Czech border, and at the German-Danish border. Most recently, in January, a suspect was arrested at Berlin Airport upon arriving from Beirut.
