Iranian diplomat in Europe charged with plotting terrorist attack and sentenced to 20 years in Belgium
China News Agency, Brussels, February 4 (Reporter De Yongjian) For suspected of planning a bomb attack on Iranian opposition figures in exile in 2018, the diplomat of the Iranian Embassy in Austria, Assadollah. Assadi) was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court on the 4th.
The Criminal Court of Antwerp, Belgium announced the verdict on the same day, and Asadi did not appear at the verdict.
According to Belgian media, this is the first time an EU member state has sentenced an Iranian official for terrorism crimes since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979.
According to the information, Assadi is 48 years old and was arrested on June 30, 2018 while on vacation in Germany. Afterwards, the Belgian prosecutor accused Assadi of delivering explosives to a Belgian couple of Iranian origin and instigated them on June 30. Go to the outskirts of Paris, France, mix into a large-scale rally organized by the Iranian opposition, and launch bomb attacks on the participants.
The Belgian prosecutor said that the authorities had been informed of the terrorist attack in advance and decided to "close the net" on the day of the attack on June 30.
In addition to the arrest of Assadi in Germany, the couple involved in the case was arrested in Belgium on the same day, and another Belgian Iranian suspect was arrested in France.
During the trial, Assadi has been detained in a Belgian prison and repeatedly argued that he should enjoy diplomatic immunity. However, the prosecutor stated that Assadi, as a diplomat in Austria, his immunity is only valid in Austria because he was arrested in Germany. Therefore, it cannot be exonerated by diplomatic immunity.
In January 2019, the European Union listed the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security’s Internal Security Service and two Iranian citizens as targets of sanctions on the grounds that Iranian intelligence agencies planned and even carried out “political assassinations” in its territory. At that time, the European Union did not announce the two Iranian citizens. According to multiple media reports, one of them is Asadi and the other is the head of the Internal Security Bureau of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of Iran.
Regarding the EU’s accusations and sanctions, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that the EU’s arrest of Asadi was an “illegal act”, which seriously violated international practices and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Iran has repeatedly expressed strong protests to relevant EU government officials and allegations. The Iranian opposition organization that held the rally on June 30, 2018 is a “terrorist organization”.
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