Cleric linked to Iran's supreme leader deported from Germany

An alleged representative of Iran's Supreme Leader in Germany has been deported, the local interior ministry said, as part of a crackdown on institutions linked to the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Hadi Mofatteh, head of the Islamic Center of Hamburg, was ordered to leave Germany after authorities shuttered his center in July for promoting Islamist extremism. His request for an urgent appeal to remain was rejected by a German court and Mofatteh left the country late Tuesday.

His departure comes a little over a year after a Berlin-based Iranian cleric was expelled on similar grounds.

"With the deportation of the former director of the Islamic Center of Hamburg, we have removed one of the most prominent Islamists from our country," Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote said, calling the expulsion a positive step for Germany's security.

In November 2023, German federal police searched the premises of the Islamic Center over suspicions it was supporting Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The center was closed in July for spreading “an Islamist, totalitarian ideology in Germany ... against human dignity, against women's rights, against an independent judiciary and against our democratic state”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at the time.

Iran protested the closure of the center and a month later security forces raided a German-affiliated language school in Tehran and closed it in apparent retaliation.

Interior Ministry documents first reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel appeared to show that Mofatteh had received instructions from the office of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The correspondence included detailed directives on how to characterize current events including Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.

Mofatteh was in consistent communication with Mehdi Mostafavi, a senior Khamenei aide, the documents indicated.

Last June, another Iranian cleric Nasir Ninknejad, head of an Iran-linked Islamic center in Berlin, was deported.

German police have conducted searches on at least a hundred properties across the country suspected of links to Iran since November of last year, according to the Interior Ministry.