Police in the western German city of Münster on Thursday stormed the Hezbollah-controlled Imam-Mahdi mosque and its affiliated center because intelligence determined that the mosque and its center are pursuing violations of the constitution, JPost reported, citing the Bild newspaper.
According to the report, the German authorities raided the apartments of two leaders of the association “Fatime Versammlung,” which is affiliated with the Imam-Mahdi mosque. A search also took place of a location in Delmenhorst, where Hezbollah also has activities.
The Bild reported that police spokeswoman Antonia Linnenbrink said “The aim of the mission is to convey the ban. The association's assets are confiscated. We are also looking for evidence of unconstitutional activities.”
In 2020, Germany issued a federal order outlawing Hezbollah in the country, and also took enforcement measures under the provisions of the order.
The order prohibits any contact with members of the organization and does not differentiate between its various arms - military, political or social. According to the order, any use of the organization's symbols and the organization's assets in Germany, if any, would be banned.
Subsequent reports indicated that Germany received intelligence information from Israel that helped formulate the declaration that Hezbollah will be outlawed.
Several countries in the world have in recent years blacklisted all of Hezbollah.
In March of 2019, the British government designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Last year, Britain's finance ministry added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing.
In November of 2020, Slovenia joined the list of countries to blacklist Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
Last February, the Liguria Regional Council in Italy designated Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.
Austria has amended its Symbols Act, which prohibits the use of the symbols of terrorist groups, and stipulated that all arms of Hezbollah are considered terrorist organizations.
In November, Australia listed all of Hezbollah as a "terrorist organization", extending an existing ban on the group’s military wing to the entire organization.
The European Union, meanwhile, only includes Hezbollah's military wing - and not its political wing - on its list of sanctioned terrorist organizations. There have been calls on the bloc over the years to amend its blacklist to include the entire group.