An Iranian operative working as a diplomat in Europe attempted to bomb a 2018 gathering of an exiled opposition group, a Belgian court found.
The Antwerp court ruled against Assadollah Assadi, 49, on Thursday, convicting him of attempting terrorist murder and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. He was then sentenced to the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
The plot revolved around a 2018 Free Iran gathering near Paris organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or the MEK, a leading dissident group seeking regime change and ridding Iran of clerical or dynastic rule. The attack was stopped when Belgian authorities received a tip from the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and pulled over a couple, 40-year-old Amir Saadouni and 36-year-old Nasimeh Naami, who were traveling in a Mercedes. When police searched the vehicle, they discovered a detonator and over a pound of triacetone triperoxide, known as TATP, which is a highly combustible explosive used in several past terrorist attacks.
Assadi, whom prosecutors allege recruited the couple to partake in the planned attack, was detained in Germany the following day and accused of smuggling the TATP from Iran on a commercial flight to Austria, where he was attached to the Iranian mission in Vienna. The court heard that Assadi traveled to Luxembourg, dressed as a tourist, where he handed the explosives off to Saadouni and Naami two days prior to their arrests in Germany. Assadi was not allowed to claim diplomatic immunity because he was on vacation at the time of his arrest, according to the Guardian.
An estimated 25,000 people attended the French rally that was targeted in the plot. Among those in attendance were former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, former Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and other United States and European dignitaries.
Due to fears of possible Iranian retaliation for the sentence, the Belgian courtroom was heavily guarded on Thursday, with police helicopters flying overhead.
The judge in the case spelled out just how deadly the attack could have been had Assadi and the other operatives not been captured.
“This would have been an attack on the democratic state of law and freedom of speech,” the judge said. “When the army bomb squad wanted to make the bomb safe, it exploded. A robot was incapacitated. Thousands of people were present at the rally in Paris. This would have resulted in many fatalities due to the explosion but also the subsequent chaos.”
The NCRI hosted a virtual news conference after Thursday’s sentencing in which Torricelli underscored the possible repercussions had the attack been successful, saying it is “hard to overstate the significance of what might have happened” at the 2018 event.
“In the history of the Iranian regime, however, it may evolve, today is a day of considerable significance,” Torricelli said. “A sovereign nation, a member of the United Nations … has had a diplomatic agent in its service found guilty of conspiring in the act of committing a terrorist act in the heart of Europe. It’s an extraordinary event.”
The former senator added that the incident undermined the legitimacy of agencies of the Iranian government at large.
“The idea that the Ministry of Intelligence in Tehran and the Foreign Ministry are legitimate governmental enterprises is now impossible to consider,” he said.
The NCRI provided the Washington Examiner with a statement from the group’s leader, Maryam Rajavi, about the sentencing. She called upon European countries to recall their ambassadors from Tehran and designate the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence as terrorist entities.
“Iran and the rest of the world have been suffering from this terrorism in the past four decades. The intelligence and foreign ministries and the regime’s embassies were directly involved in this plot,” Rajavi said. “Silence and inaction under whatever pretext will only embolden the mullahs’ regime to continue its crimes and terrorism.”
Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge thanked Belgian authorities for their “courage” in following through with Assadi’s trial during an appearance at the NCRI news conference.
“We can probably sadly predict that … there will be consequences, there will be retribution, [and] there will be retaliation,” he said. “And I think the judge and the security people who were assigned to investigate this case … accepted and embraced the notion that as a country committed to the rule of law, that it was fundamental for them to proceed.”
In addition to Assadi’s 20-year sentence, Saadouni was given a 15-year prison sentence, and Naami will remain behind bars for the next 18 years. A fourth defendant, Mehrdad Arefani, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, according to the Associated Press.
The convictions have implications for diplomatic relations between Tehran and the West. Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who the NCRI claims was complicit in the plot, said after Assadi’s conviction that the entire plan was a “false flag” operation designed to damage European relations with Tehran ahead of a visit by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Assadi’s conviction further complicates President Biden’s foreign policy plans for Iran. The U.S. left the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2018 and has since imposed harsh sanctions. The Biden administration has expressed willingness to return to some form of a nuclear deal, although officials have said Iran must come into compliance with the original strictures of the pact before sanctions will be lifted.
Iran said it will come back into compliance if the U.S. ends its sanctions, despite the nation’s violation of every tenant of the JCPOA in recent years. Last month, Iran announced plans to begin enriching uranium to 20%, far above the 3.67% limit set forward in the deal.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that if Iran continues violating the JCPOA, it could be just “weeks away” from developing a nuclear weapon, intensifying the urgency of the situation.
A spokesperson at the State Department said it was aware of the development when contacted by the Washington Examiner.
“The United States universally condemns acts of terrorism used to undermine freedom of opinion and expression anywhere in the world,” the spokesperson said. “We welcome all efforts to hold the planners and perpetrators of such heinous acts accountable.”
The White House National Security Council was also contacted for comment regarding Assadi’s conviction but did respond.
