The European movement continues a campaign against the Lebanese Hezbollah militia, targeting its siege and depriving it of a main source for donations. The German authorities have also dealt a new blow to the Lebanese militia, as well as its attempts to escape the siege imposed on it in Germany.

Hezbollah members arrested

Germany arrested two suspected members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah; on charges of promoting and carrying out activities for the pro-Iranian organization, which is banned by its political and military wings in EU countries.

The German judiciary announced that the arrest was based on two arrest warrants issued by the investigating judge of the Federal Court in the districts of Aurech and Coxhaven on May 2nd, according to the German News Agency.

Direct accusations

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement: “Hassan M., a Lebanese, and Abdellatif W., a German-Lebanese, were arrested near Coxhaven in the northern state of Lower Saxony. The German authorities accuse the Lebanese-German man of having worked as a leader in the party abroad since 2004, and of having been a member of the Radwan Brigade, an elite unit in the party’s military arm.”

According to the authorities, the man had headed the Jamaat al-Mustafa Association in Bremen since 2012, which was banned in 2022. He organized, among other things, the appearance of preachers and co-founded an association’s youth group. It is believed that he visited the Radwan Brigade’s combat units in Syria at the end of 2015 and early 2016 to further the militants’ cause.

The first detainee to be a leader in the party abroad since 2004, a member of the Al-Radwan Brigade, and the other supervised Lebanese associations, especially in the north of Germany. The authorities said that the other arrested Lebanese national, as a member of the foreign relations department of the party, supervised Lebanese associations, especially in the north of Germany. In 2018, he is believed to have commissioned a meeting of Lebanese associations in Germany and appeared repeatedly as a preacher with the al-Mustafa Group in 2022.

The two arrested men are expected to be brought before an investigative judge of the German Federal Court on Wednesday, who will decide on a prosecution request to place them in pre-trial detention.

Block activity

According to Mohammed al-Raz, a Lebanese political analyst, Germany banned all activities of Hezbollah in 2020, designated it a “terrorist organization” and arrested a number of its members, and also banned three associations suspected of raising funds for an affiliated institution, all of which show the state of European anger towards the terrorist militia.

He added that many European countries consider Hezbollah, or its military wing, a terrorist organization, and German police have conducted raids against Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic associations and centers in Berlin, Bremen, and North Rhine-Westphalia, on charges of supporting the group’s terror network, fundraising, recruiting sympathizers and providing logistical services.