ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) – An Iranian diplomat identified as a secret agent was found guilty in Belgium on Thursday of masterminding a failed bombing raid on an exiled Iranian opposition group in France and sentenced to 20 years in prison, a legitimate outcome that angered Tehran.
A Belgian court has rejected the Vienna official’s claim of diplomatic immunity. The official, Assadollah Assadi, disputed the charges and refused to testify during his trial last year. He appealed to his diplomatic status. He did not attend Thursday’s trial in the Antwerp courthouse.
Prosecutors have demanded a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on charges of attempted murder of terrorists and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.
Defense attorney Dimitri De Beco said Assadi would likely decide to appeal the verdict and sentence. Three other defendants were also convicted and sentenced to long prison terms after the court ruled they belong to the same network.
During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs and representatives of the opposition group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, claimed without providing evidence that the diplomat instituted the attack on the direct orders of the highest authorities in Iran. Tehran denied having a hand in the conspiracy.
Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, condemned the court rulings, saying Iran did not recognize the sentence because it considered the Belgian proceedings against Assadi illegal.
The court in Antwerp rejected Assadi’s allegations of individual immunity, saying the case did not violate the principles of state immunity, as neither Iran nor an Iranian security service was on hand.
In its ruling, it makes clear that Iran is not on trial, but insists that the quartet of accused are members of a cell working for Iran’s intelligence services that gathers information about the opposition group to identify targets and launch an attack. set.
Assadi’s conviction comes at a critical time and has the potential to embarrass his country, as US President Joe Biden’s government is considering whether to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers. Iran also said last month that it expected Washington to lift economic sanctions imposed on the country by former President Donald Trump after it pulled America out of the 2018 nuclear deal.
The European Union focused its response specifically on Assadi and did not use Iran as a nation. ‘The acts committed by this person are completely unacceptable. That’s a fact. The other aspect I can add is that the person in question is already on the EU list against terrorism, “said EU spokesman Peter Stano.
The Belgian government said the ruling stood on its own, separate from diplomacy and international relations.
‘What is important is that the legal system today rules on facts of terrorism and has made a clear statement about them. And it must be able to do so in complete independence. “Otherwise we will no longer live in a constitutional state,” said Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister of Justice.
On 30 June 2018, Belgian police officers tipped off by the intelligence services about a possible attack on the MEK’s annual meeting, stopping a couple in a Mercedes car. In their luggage, they found 550 grams of the unstable TATP explosive and an igniter.
According to the Belgian bomb disposal unit, the device was of professional quality. It could have caused a significant explosion and panic in the crowd, estimated at 25,000 people, who gathered that day in the French city of Villepinte, north of Paris.
Among the dozens of prominent guests at the rally that day was Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani; Newt Gingrich, former Conservative speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.
Assadi was arrested a day later in Germany and transferred to Belgium. The court said since Assadi was on holiday at the time of his arrest – and not in Austria, where he was accredited – he has not been entitled to immunity.
In a note from the Belgian intelligence and security agency seen by The Associated Press, he is identified as an officer of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security who operates under covert operations at the Iranian embassy in Austria. Belgium’s state security officials said he worked for the ministry’s so – called Department 312, the Directorate for Internal Security, which is on a European Union list of organizations that the EU considers terrorist groups.
Prosecutors identified Assadi as the alleged “operational commander” of the planned attack, accusing him of recruiting the couple – Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami – years earlier. Both were of Iranian heritage.
Saadouni was sentenced to 15 years in prison while Naami received an 18-year prison sentence.
According to the investigation, Assadi carried the explosive on a commercial flight from Iran to Austria and later handed the bomb over to the couple during a meeting in a Pizza Hut restaurant in Luxembourg. The ruling confirms that the explosive was manufactured and tested in Iran.
The fourth accused, Mehrdad Arefani, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The National Resistance Council of Iran is part of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an Iranian opposition group based largely in Albania and Paris.
It was formed in 1965 by university students who adopted both Marxism and Islamic government while trying to overthrow the ruling shah. They were blamed for the killings of Americans in the 1970s and later assassinations and bombings, attacks in which the group now denies being involved.
They were pushed out of Iran in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and then joined Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in fighting Iran, and became incredibly unpopular in their country. The group has been trying to restore its image for the past few years, paying tens of thousands of dollars of speaking money to American politicians. The MEK says it renounced violence in 2001.
The organization’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, welcomed the ruling and confirmed her allegations that Assadi’s conspiracy had been approved by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The time has come for the European Union to take action,” she said, urging EU countries to recall their ambassadors from Tehran in the light of the ruling.
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Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Angela Charlton in Paris, Raf Casert in Brussels and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.