BERLIN (AP) — A man arrested last year has been charged with espionage and attempted participation in murder after an Iranian intelligence agency tasked him with gathering information on the head of Germany's main Jewish group and three others with a view to carrying out attacks, German prosecutors said Thursday.
The suspect, a Danish national identified only as Ali S. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested last June in Denmark. An alleged accomplice, an Afghan national identified as Tawab M., also was arrested there in November. Federal prosecutors said they filed an indictment against the pair at the Hamburg state court on May 7.
Ali S. was charged with working as an agent for an intelligence service, acting as a secret agent for purposes of sabotage and attempted participation in murder and arson. Tawab M. was charged with attempted participation in murder.
Prosecutors alleged that Ali S. worked for the intelligence service of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and was in close contact with the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force.
They said that, at the beginning of 2025, he was tasked with gathering information on the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, and on the head of the German-Israeli Society, prominent former German lawmaker Volker Beck, as well as two Jewish grocers in Berlin whom they didn't identify.
“All this served for the preparation of assassination and arson attacks in Germany,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Ali S. scouted out various locations in Berlin last year and sought accomplices for attacks, they added. By May 2025, he was in contact with Tawab M., who allegedly said that he was prepared to procure a weapon for an unidentified third person and arrange for him to try to kill Beck.
After Ali S. was arrested last year, Iran's ambassador was summoned to the German Foreign Ministry. The Iranian Embassy at the time rejected what it called “unfounded and dangerous allegations” of an apparent plan for an attack on Jewish facilities.
FILE - The Iranian flag flies in front of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Berlin, June 22, 2025. (Fabian Sommer/dpa via AP, File)
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal officials on Thursday gave final approval for the Dakota Access oil pipeline to continue operating its contentious Missouri River crossing, an outcome that comes nearly a decade after boisterous protests against the project on the North Dakota prairie.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant the key easement means the pipeline will keep operating but with added conditions for detecting leaks and monitoring groundwater, among others. The announcement brings an end to a drawn-out legal and regulatory saga stemming from the protests in 2016 and 2017, though further litigation over the pipeline is likely.
The $3.8 billion, multistate pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017 from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field to a terminal in Illinois. The line carries about 4% of U.S. daily oil production, or roughly 540,000 barrels per day,
The Corps is “decisively putting years of delays to rest and moving out to safely execute this crossing beneath Lake Oahe," Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle said in a statement.
The pipeline crosses the river upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, which straddles the Dakotas. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, fearing a spill and contamination of its water supply. In 2016 and 2017, thousands of people camped and protested for months near the river crossing.
The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests and related criminal cases and lawsuits, some of them still ongoing, including litigation that threatens the future of the environmental group Greenpeace.
In December, the Corps released its final environmental impact statement nearly six years after a federal judge ordered a more rigorous review of the pipeline's crossing. In that document, the Corps endorsed the option to grant the easement for the crossing and keep the pipeline operating with modifications.
Those measures include enhanced leak detection and monitoring systems, expanded groundwater and surface water monitoring and third-party expert evaluation of the leak and detection systems, among others, the Corps said. The conditions also include studies of the sinking of the earth coordinated with affected tribes.
The Corps had weighed several options, including removing or abandoning the pipeline's river crossing or even rerouting it north. The agency said its decision “best balances public safety, protection of environmental resources, and leak detection and response considerations while meeting the project’s purpose and need.”
Pipeline developer Energy Transfer hailed the decision, saying the pipeline has been safely operating for nearly 10 years and is critical to the country’s energy infrastructure.
“We want to thank the Corps for the tremendous amount of time and effort put in by so many to bring this matter to a thoughtful close,” said Vicki Granado, a company spokesperson.
The Associated Press sent text messages and emails to media representatives for the tribe and left a voicemail at the tribe's headquarters. They didn't immediately respond Thursday.
North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong, Interior Secretary and former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer each welcomed the decision to ensure the pipeline continues operating.
The Corps' announcement came as officials and oil industry leaders were gathered for a trade conference in Bismarck.
Energy Transfer and Enbridge are in early stages of a project to move about 250,000 daily barrels of light Canadian crude oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline by using another pipeline and building a 56-mile connecting line, spokespersons for the companies said. Enbridge will decide sometime in mid-2026 whether to move ahead.
FILE - A sign for the Dakota Access Pipeline is seen north of Cannonball, N.D. and the Standing Rock Reservation on May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
