A Berlin court on Wednesday became the first in Germany to formally affirm that Hamas constitutes a terrorist organization under German law, handing prison sentences to four of the group’s members who had been caught stockpiling weapons for potential attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.

The ruling, issued by the First Criminal Senate of the Berlin Court of Appeal, sentenced the four defendants — all Lebanese-born men who had lived in Germany or elsewhere in Europe for years — to terms ranging from four and a half to six years. They were arrested in December 2023 after authorities discovered they had been tasked by a senior Hamas official in Lebanon with locating underground weapons caches in Poland, Denmark, and Bulgaria, inspecting the stockpiles, and reburying them for future use.

The verdict carries implications that extend well beyond the four men in the dock. By establishing in a court of law that Hamas “constitutes a foreign terrorist organization under the German Criminal Code,” the ruling shores up the legal foundation of the German government’s 2023 executive decision to classify the group as a terrorist organization — a designation that had never before been tested before a German judge. It also sets a precedent that could complicate future efforts by Hamas advocates to challenge or reverse that classification.

“Hamas, a Sunni organization with a militant-extremist orientation that emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood, undoubtedly fulfills the elements of the offense defined in Sections 129a and 129b of the Criminal Code,” the presiding judge stated in her oral explanation of the verdict.

The judge noted that while Hamas has appeared on the European Union’s terrorist designation list for years, it had not previously been classified as such under German domestic law — a gap Wednesday’s ruling formally closed.

The four defendants — identified by the court as Abdelhamid Al A., 47; Mohamed B., 36; Ibrahim El-R., 43; and Nazih R., 58 — communicated extensively with one another and with their Hamas handler, and prosecutors built their case on that body of communications. German prosecutors are now preparing indictments against additional alleged Hamas operatives currently in custody.

The case is part of a broader pattern of Hamas-linked arrests across Europe in recent months. In November, German authorities dismantled a suspected Hamas cell of at least five members who had allegedly plotted attacks on Israeli or Jewish targets. On March 6, Cypriot authorities arrested a Lebanese man sought by Germany in connection with allegations that he helped Hamas acquire weapons.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)