Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof (GBA)
GBA: Indictment Filed Against a Suspected Member of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation 'Hizb Allah' (Hezbollah)
Karlsruhe (ots)
On 2 September 2025, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against
Lebanese national Fadel Z.
before the State Security Chamber of the Celle Higher Regional Court.
There are sufficient grounds to suspect the accused of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation (section 129a para. 1 no. 1 StGB, section 129b para. 1 sentences 1 and 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]. He is also charged with 47 counts of commercial violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (AWG) (section 18 para. 5 sentence 1 no. 1, para. 7 no. 2 AWG in conjunction with Art. 3 para. 1 of Regulation (EU) 2021/821). Moreover, he is charged with one count of aiding and abetting attempted murder (section 211 Abs. 2, Var. 4, 5 und 7, sections 22, 27 StGB).
In essence, the indictment sets out the following allegations:
Hizb Allah ('Party of God', also: 'Hezbollah' or 'Hizbollah') is a militant Islamist organisation in Lebanon, which strives to free the country from western influences and to annihilate the neighbouring state of Israel. The group also regards terrorist attacks on civilians as a legitimate means in its fight. Numerous assassinations and bomb attacks have been attributed to it. The organisation has approximately 20,000 trained fighters. For several years now, Hizb Allah has been maintaining an extensive drone programme with more than 10,000 drones by June 2024. In order to procure drones, the organisation employs operatives abroad who clandestinely purchase components, inter alia, in Europe and export them to Lebanon. Hizb Allah has affirmed its support for HAMAS after the latter's terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and, since then, has itself launched rockets and drones containing explosives against military and civilian targets in Israel.
Fadel Z. joined Hizb Allah as a member already before 2015. Initially, he served as a media relations officer. By August 2022, the latest, he became a Hizb Allah foreign operative with a key role in the organisation's drone programme. At the beginning, he worked from Barcelona (Spain), since summer 2023 from Germany. Until his arrest in July 2024, he acquired on behalf of his organisation drone components worth almost 1.4 million Euros from companies in various European countries as well as China and the United States. His purchases included over 2,000 petrol and electric engines, more than 600 propellers, almost 11 tons of expoxy resin, inclinometers or other equipment. To do business, Fadel Z. often used front companies running in his name or the name of contact persons. The suppliers received their payment also through letterbox or front companies. The money came from Hizb Allah, Fadel Z. was involved in its channeling further. He also organized the transport of the purchased goods to Lebanon, either by ship from ports in Hamburg and Spain or by air cargo. Hizb Allah installed two engines purchased by Fadel Z. in drones directed against Israel. One of them was fired into a retirement home in Herzliya near Tel Aviv in the night of 11 October 2024 (Yom Kippur). While the device exploded inside the facility, no one was hurt.
Fadel Z. was provisionally arrested on 14 July 2024 and has been in pre-trial detention since the following day (see Press Release No. 37 of 15 July 2024).
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Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof (GBA)
Dr. Ines Peterson
Oberstaatsanwältin beim BGH
Brauerstr. 30
76135 Karlsruhe
Telefon: 0721 8191-4100
Fax: 0721 8191-8492
E-Mail: presse@generalbundesanwalt.de
http://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/
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