Intelligence agency warns of Iranian spies

“We know that the Iranian service has people marching along with demonstrations,” Manfred Murck, spokesperson for the Hamburg Verfassungsschutz office, told broadcaster ARD.

Murck confirmed research from the broadcaster’s show “Panorama,” which found that Iranian secret police are attempting to identify participants in anti-Iran protests within Germany.

“We have documents that show they are taking videos, that he wants to specifically seek out people,” he continued, referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian secret service has also been trying to cultivate contacts within Germany, intelligence officials believe. “Panorama” located a man of Iranian heritage in Berlin who said he had been coerced into working with the Iranian authorities.

Meanwhile 25-year-old filmmaker Narges Kalhor made a last-minute decision to seek asylum in Germany on Monday after she was warned she might be arrested upon her return for showing a film critical of the regime’s human rights abuses.

The daughter of a top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad premiered “Darkhish,” or “The Rake,” last Friday at the Nuremberg Human Rights Film Festival.

Based on Franz Kafka’s short story, “In the Penal Colony,” the 10-minute film features a machine that brutally punishes alleged criminals by etching their transgressions into their flesh. Film festival organisers described the machine as a “symbol for a totalitarian barbarism” condemning Iran’s brutal penal system.