Germany jails man for supplying Hezbollah with drone equipment

A German court on Tuesday jailed a 35-year-old man for supplying Hezbollah with equipment for drones.

The Lebanese man, previously named as Fadel Z., was convicted of offenses including "membership of a foreign terrorist organization" and being "an accomplice to attempted murder."

The court in the city of Celle sentenced him to six years and four months in prison.

It found that Fadel Z. had joined Hezbollah at some point after July 2016.

It said that by 2022 he had organized exports of "militarily useful goods" to the tune of 500,000 euros ($580,000) in order to help Hezbollah's drone program.

The components he delivered included material for more than 300 explosive drones.

The man was arrested in summer 2024.

The court noted that he was "born in a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon and was brought up with the ideology of the terror organization."

Prosecutors had demanded a jail sentence of nine years but the court decided on a lower term partly because Fadel Z. had admitted some of the offenses and thereby sped up the trial.

Hezbollah's military wing is classed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Britain.

Germany considers Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organization" and in 2020 banned Hezbollah from carrying out activities on its soil.