An Iranian diplomat was sentenced, Thursday, February 4, to the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison by the court in Antwerp, Belgium, for having planned an attack against a rally of opponents of the Tehran regime in France in 2018.
This sentence is in line with the demands made by the prosecution during the trial, which was held at the end of November at the Criminal Court of the Flemish port city.
Assadollah Assadi, 49, who denies the facts, was being prosecuted for "terrorist assassination attempts" and "participation in the activities of a terrorist group".
Three Belgian accomplices of Iranian origin were sentenced to terms ranging from fifteen to eighteen years in prison, as well as the deprivation of their Belgian nationality.
This dossier, combining terrorism and espionage, has sparked diplomatic tensions between Tehran and several European capitals, including Paris.
The Iranian regime had warned ahead of the judgment that it would not recognize it, asserting that the procedure initiated by the Belgian courts was "not legitimate, because of the diplomatic immunity" of Assadollah Assadi.
The targeted opponents for their part denounced a project relating to "state terrorism".
A bomb attack was to target on June 30, 2018 in Villepinte, near Paris, the large annual gathering of the National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCRI), a coalition of opponents including the People's Mojahedin (MEK).
The same day, a Belgian-Iranian couple domiciled in Antwerp was arrested by Belgian police near Brussels in possession of 500 grams of TATP explosive, as well as a detonator, in their car.
The arrest takes place at the last minute, and the gathering can be held with its prestigious guests, about twenty of whom are civil parties in the proceedings alongside the NCRI (among others the Franco-Colombian and ex-hostage of the FARC Ingrid Betancourt).
"Diplomatic coverage"
At the time stationed at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, Assadollah Assadi was arrested on July 1 in Germany, where investigators believe he no longer enjoys his diplomatic immunity.
The latter are in possession of images showing him on June 28 in Luxembourg delivering a package containing the bomb to the Belgian-Iranian couple.
Incarcerated in Germany, the diplomat was handed over in October 2018 to Belgium.
He had refused to be taken out of cell to appear on November 27, 2020.
According to the prosecution, the investigation showed that Assadi was in fact an Iranian intelligence agent "acting under diplomatic cover", and that he coordinated this terrorist project by relying on three accomplices, the couple domiciled in Antwerp. , as well as a former Iranian dissident poet exiled in Europe.
The couple's wife, Nasimeh Naami, 36, was sentenced Thursday to eighteen years in prison and her companion Amir Saadouni (aged 40) to fifteen.
Former dissident Mehrdad Arefani (57), presented as an Iranian intelligence agent acting from Belgium, receives a seventeen-year sentence.
The NCRI, whose main component is the organization of the People's Mojahedin, presents itself as the most important opposition movement inside and outside the Iranian regime.
Its detractors accuse it of being a sectarian movement without representativeness.
Founded in the 1960s, of Marxist inspiration, it was classified until the end of the 2000s as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR