The “Washington Post” newspaper reported this morning (Wednesday) that Ramin Iktaforstwho heads an Iranian “biker gang”, is the main suspect in the shooting at a synagogue in the western German city of Essen, last November.
After the incident, the investigators on behalf of the German authorities suspected that they were extremist right-wing activists, but later the picture changed and the suspicion was directed towards Iran. Now, security officials in Germany and the US have pointed an accusing finger at Ramin Yektaparast, who was suspected of murder in Germany and currently lives in Iran.
Police officers near the old synagogue in Essen, Germany (Photo: Reuters)
Investigators of the event now assume that Yektafarst is linked to the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, who activated it in order to recruit activists on German soil and carry out attacks against institutions of the Jewish community. According to the Washington Post, this is a well-known tactic used by the Revolutionary Guards to hide any responsibility for terrorist attacks on European soil. The German police tracked down Yektafarst, after another 35-year-old Iranian threw a Molotov cocktail at a school, near a synagogue, in the city of Bochum. The same Iranian citizen was arrested, and the number of the same Yektafarst was found on his mobile phone.
Although the Ministry of the Interior in Berlin recently issued warnings about damage to the institutions of the Jewish community, by the Revolutionary Guards, Germany continues to refuse to put the organization on the blacklist of terrorist organizations.
As a reminder, four holes caused by bullets were found on the morning of Friday, the 18th of November 2022, in the building located next to the old synagogue in the city of Essen in western Germany. The building where the bullet holes were found used to be used by the rabbi of the city’s synagogue.
Special forces of the German police at the entrance to the train station in Munich (Photo: Reuters)
According to the local police, passers-by on the street reported the holes caused by the shooting, and that in the video from the security camera at the scene, an unknown person can be seen shooting at the door of the building, but due to the poor quality of the recording, he cannot be identified.
The old synagogue in the city of Essen and the rabbi’s house where the bullet holes were found were set on fire during the Kristallnacht pogrom that took place in November 1938. The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute for German-Jewish History and the rooms of the University of Duisburg-Essen are located in the rabbi’s house, right next to the synagogue building. The protection measures of the old synagogue, which is currently used by the city of Essen as a cultural institute, will be checked and adjusted if necessary, according to the police.