Thu | Jul 16, 2026

Iranian diplomat convicted of planning attack on opposition

Published:Thursday | February 4, 2021 | 12:32 PM
People demonstrate while holding photos of Maryam Rajavi, leader of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, during the trial of four persons, including an Iranian diplomate and Belgian-Iranian couple at the courthouse in Antwerp, Belgium, Thursday, February 4, 2021. An Iranian official on Thursday was convicted 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 that rejected his claim of diplomatic immunity. Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat detained in Belgium, refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status. He did not attend Thursday's hearing at the Antwerp courthouse. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

ANTWERP, Belgium (AP) — An Iranian diplomat identified as an undercover secret agent was convicted Thursday in Belgium of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France and sentenced to 20 years in prison, a legal outcome that infuriated Tehran.

A Belgian court rejected the Vienna-based official’s claim of diplomatic immunity.

The official, Assadollah Assadi, contested the charges and refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status.

He did not attend Thursday’s hearing at the Antwerp courthouse.

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.

Defence lawyer Dimitri De Beco said Assadi would likely decide to appeal the verdict and sentence.

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

During 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. Tehran has denied having a hand in the plot.

A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh, condemned the court decisions and said Iran did not recognise the sentence because it considers the Belgian proceedings against Assadi to have been illegal.

The court in Antwerp rejected Assadi’s claims of individual immunity and said the case did not violate state immunity principles since neither Iran nor an Iranian security service stood trial.

In its ruling, it 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.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.