Belgium court sentences Iran diplomat to 20 years in jail

The West’s support for anti-Iran terrorist group of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq Organisation (MKO), showed once again itself in the form of convicting an Iranian diplomat by the name of Assadollah Assadi, on baseless charges to 20 years in prison.

The Iranian government believes that the plot against Assadi was initially designed by the Israeli Mossad.

The Iranian diplomat was convicted Thursday of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against the exiled MKO terror group, which has brutally assassinated and killed more than 12,000 Iranian officials and civilians since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Assadollah Assadi was tried while his detention was illegal and against the rules and procedures of the international community and the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention. The Belgian court ruling was issued based on information provided by the Mossad (Israeli spy agency) to the European side.

A report by the Associated Press said that the Belgian Antwerp court had invoked Assadi’s diplomatic status after he refused to testify during his trial last year. He contested all the charges against him. 

Three other defendants were also found guilty and received lengthy jail sentences after the court ruled that they belonged to the same network.

The AP has reported that during the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs and representatives of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq terror group claimed without offering evidence that the diplomat set up the attack on direct orders from Iran’s highest authorities. Tehran has denied having a hand in the plot.

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 terrorist group to identify targets and set up an attack.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry had called Assadi’s detention an illegal action and in violation of international rules and procedures as well as the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

MNA/5139069