#Belgium diplomatic immunity murder jail trial

The National Council of Resistance of Iran is a part of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, an exiled Iranian opposition group largely based in Albania and Paris. The fourth defendant, Mehrdad Arefani, was sentenced to 17 years in prison. The ruling confirmed that the explosives were made and tested in Iran. Saadouni was sentenced to 15 years in jail while Naami was handed a 18-year sentence.Īccording to the investigation, Assadi carried the explosives to Austria on a commercial flight from Iran and later handed the bomb over to the pair during a meeting at a Pizza Hut restaurant in Luxembourg. Prosecutors said he was the “operational commander” of the attack and accused him of recruiting the couple - Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami - years before the attack, to obtain information about the opposition. Belgium’s state security officers said he worked for the ministry’s so-called Department 312, the directorate for internal security, which is on the European Union’s list of organizations regarded as terrorist. Otherwise, we no longer live in a constitutional state,” said Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne.Ī note from Belgium’s intelligence and security agency seen by The Associated Press identified him as an officer of Iran’s intelligence and security ministry who operated under cover at Iran’s embassy in Vienna. And it must be able to do that in complete independence. “What matters is that today the justice system has ruled on facts of terrorism and made a clear statement about it. The Belgian government said the ruling stood on its own, separated from diplomacy and international relations. The other aspect I can add is that the person in question is already on the EU counter-terrorism list,” said EU spokesman Peter Stano. “The acts committed by this person are completely unacceptable. The European Union centered its reaction on Assadi specifically and did not draw in Iran as a nation. Iran also said last month it expects Washington to lift economic sanctions that former President Donald Trump imposed on the country after pulling America out of the atomic deal in 2018. President Joe Biden’s administration weighs whether to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. In its ruling, the court made clear Iran was not on trial, but insisted the quartet of defendants were members of a cell operating for Iran’s intelligence services gathering information about the opposition group to identify targets and set up an attack.Īssadi’s conviction comes at a critical time and has the potential to embarrass his country as U.S. Tehran has denied having a hand in the plot. Three other defendants were also found guilty and received lengthy jail sentences after the court ruled that they belonged to the same network.ĭuring the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs and representatives of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group, or MEK, claimed without offering evidence that the diplomat set up the attack on direct orders from Iran’s highest authorities. His lawyer, Dimitri De Beco, said it’s likely Assadi will decide to appeal the ruling.

Assadi contested all the charges against him. Prosecutors had requested the maximum prison sentence of 20 years on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. He did not attend Thursday’s hearing at the Antwerp courthouse.

#Belgium diplomatic immunity murder jail trial

Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.ĪNTWERP, Belgium (AP) - An Iranian official identified as an undercover agent was convicted Thursday of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France in 2018 and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court, which rejected his claim of diplomatic immunity.Īssadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat detained in Belgium, refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status.

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