Iranian intelligence services - including the Ministry of Intelligence (VAJA/MOIS), Quds Force, and IRGC Intelligence Organisation - are conducting surveillance on Iranian opposition activists in Germany, German domestic intelligence confirms.
Agents monitor rallies, identify dissidents, and pressure exiles through family members held in Iran. Hossein Yaghobi, an Iranian engineer living in Germany for over 40 years, said Tehran arrested and tortured his relatives to coerce cooperation - even offering him a senior engineering post in exchange for silence.
WhatsApp is routinely used to infiltrate exile networks. In one intercepted exchange, an agent asked for names and affiliations of protest attendees - then threatened to sabotage the target’s asylum application if the contact became public.
Refugees seeking to return to Iran must sign forms pledging intelligence cooperation at Iranian embassies. Hezbollah operatives and regime proxies have also been deployed in Germany.
In 2018, French, German, and Belgian authorities foiled a planned terrorist attack against Iranian opposition demonstrators. In 2017, an activist was assassinated in The Hague.
Over 160,000 Iranian citizens reside in Germany without German passports - and renouncing Iranian citizenship remains functionally impossible under Iranian law.