An Iranian diplomat was sentenced by a Belgian court to 20 years in prison after being convicted of a bomb plot against a rally of an Iranian opposition group near Paris in 2018.
The court ruled that Assadolah Assadi and three others sought to kill top leaders of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) during the rally. The plot was uncovered ahead of time by German, French and Belgian police.
Investigators say Assadi transported the explosives for the plot on a commercial flight to Austria from Iran.
Three Iranians with dual Belgian citizenship were convicted as Assadi’s accomplices. All three have had their Belgian citizenship stripped.
Two were arrested by Belgian police on the day of the rally while driving from Antwerp with 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of TATP explosives and a detonator.
Prosecutors said the couple had received the bomb materials from Assadi for transport to the rally. They were sentenced to 18 years.
Another Iranian-Belgian man had been due to guide the couple once at the rally. He was sentenced to 15 years.
Assadi was arrested in July 2018 while on vacation in Germany as the result of a Europol sting involving several countries.
The NCRI said police prevented what would have been a “bloodbath.”
Following the foiled bombing attempt, the French government accused Iranian intelligence of being behind the operation, a claim Tehran denied.
This is an important milestone and turning point that sheds light on how Iran uses its embassies to spread terror in Europe. For many years, Iranians have used their diplomatic cover to hatch plots, including kidnappings, and alleged support for terror or assassinations, wrote Seth J.Franzman in The Jerusalem Post.
‘’But European countries often did not convict people or refused to go after the Iranian intelligence networks in some cases, not wanting repercussions,’’ he added.
Toby Dershowitz, an expert on Iranian terrorism at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank, said that this case is not an aberration but rather part of a pattern of the Islamic Republic’s terrorism in Europe and around the world.