BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — An Iranian diplomat goes on trial in
Belgium accused of plotting to bomb an opposition rally outside
Paris, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran.
In June 2018 Belgian authorities thwarted what they said was an attempt to
smuggle explosives to France to attack a meeting of one of Iran’s exiled
opposition movements.
Later that year, the French government accused Iran’s intelligence service
of being behind the operation, a charge the Islamic republic has furiously
denied.
Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old Iranian diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces life in prison if convicted.
The National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), which includes the
People’s Mojahedin of Iran or (MEK), organised a rally in Villepinte outside
Paris on June 30, 2018.
Several well-known international figures — including former US and British officials and Franco-Colombian former senator Ingrid Betancourt — and NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi were to attend.
On the same morning, Belgian police intercepted a Belgian-Iranian couple
driving from Antwerp and carrying half-a-kilo of TATP explosives and a
detonator.
The arrested couple, 36-year-old Nassimeh Naami and 40-year-old Amir
Saadouni, join Assadi in the dock, alongside another alleged accomplice,
Mehrdad Arefani, 57.
All four are charged with attempting to carry out a terrorist attack and
taking part in the activity of a terrorist group. All face life sentences.
Assadi was arrested while he was travelling through Germany where he had no immunity from prosecution, being outside of the country of his diplomatic posting.
Arefani, an Iranian poet who had lived in Belgium for more than a decade,
was arrested in France in 2018 after Belgium issued an European arrest
warrant.
The trial is scheduled to be held until Thursday next week. The court is then expected to adjourn to consider its verdict before ruling early next year. — NNN-AGENCIES
