Germany is planning to deport the leader of an Islamic center it banned in July over alleged links to terrorist groups, an interior ministry spokeswoman said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency.
Investigators swooped on the Hamburg Islamic Center five weeks ago after concluding it was an "Islamist extremist organization" with links to Iran and Hezbollah.
Mohammad Mofatteh, 57, the former director of the center, has been ordered to leave Germany within 14 days and faces deportation if he does not comply, the spokeswoman said.
He will not be allowed to re-enter Germany and could face up to three years in prison if he does.
Andy Grote, interior minister for the state of Hamburg, said Mofatteh's deportation was "the next logical step" against the Hamburg Islamic Center.
When it banned the center in July, Germany's interior ministry accused it of being a "direct representative of Iran's Supreme Leader" and spreading Tehran's ideology "in an aggressive and militant manner".
The ministry also accused the center of backing the "military and political dimension" of organizations like Hezbollah, according to AFP.
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.
The move against Mofatteh comes with deportations high on the political agenda in Germany, after last Friday’s deadly knife attack in the western city of Solingen which left three dead and eight wounded.
The suspect in the attack, a 26-year-old Syrian man, was ordered to be held on suspicion of murder and membership in a terrorist organization.
The judge’s ruling came after federal prosecutors said that the suspect shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.