Lebanese man jailed in Germany for Hezbollah membership

A court in Germany has sentenced a Lebanese man to six-and-a-half years in prison for being a member of Hezbollah, the Shia militia group, whose military wing is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the EU. The 35-year-old man, named only as Fadel Z in line with German privacy rules, was also found guilty of aiding and abetting attempted murder, and numerous violations of European Union embargo regulations. The court in the northern town of Celle heard how Fadel Z joined Hezbollah 10 years ago and had a key role procuring products for Hezbollah's drones programme. Prosecutors accused him of purchasing €1.4m (£1.2m) worth of materials for the construction of drones. They said these included more than 2,000 petrol and electric motors and over 600 propellers. Fadel Z admitted to the deliveries, according to reports in the German media. Prosecutors said Fadel Z, who most recently lived in Salzgitter in Lower Saxony, became a "foreign operator" for Hezbollah's drones programme in 2022, first from Barcelona in Spain. In the summer of 2023, he started working from Germany. The products came from companies in Europe, China and the United States. Fadel Z is said to have often used fron