Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, arrives at Antwerp courthouse,
on November 27, 2020, ahead of the start of the trial of four
suspects including an Iranian diplomat accused of taking part in a
plot to bomb an opposition rally. In July 2018, Kenzo
TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
An Iranian diplomat goes on trial in Belgium on Friday
accused of plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally outside
Paris, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran.
The case shines an uncomfortable light on Tehran’s international
activities just as it hopes for a thaw in relations with the West
as US President Donald Trump, who pulled Washington out of the Iran
nuclear deal, is due to leave office.
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 which was attended by close
allies of US President Donald Trump.
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 Trump
lawyer Rudy Giuliani and former British officials as well as
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.
“We can’t imagine the scale of the disaster averted,” said
lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier, who is representing the interests
of the NCRI, along with French colleague William Bourdon.
Outside the court, Bourdon declared: “It’s an unprecedented,
historic trial. It the first time that, symbolically, the mullahs’
regime is in the dock and will be judged through the case against
its so-called diplomats.”
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.
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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 a
European arrest warrant.
– ‘Absolutely furious’ –
Counsel representing those targeted by the alleged attack say
Arefani was close to Assadi, said to be the architect of the plot,
and point to an Austrian SIM card found in his possession.
The two men deny any connection.
Dimitri de Beco, defence counsel for Assadi, has accused the
civil plaintiffs of trying to turn the case into a political trial
on behalf of the opposition movement.
According to Iran expert Francois Nicoullaud — a former French
ambassador to Tehran — Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was
surprised to learn about the failed attack.
“Visiting Europe at the time, he was absolutely furious to learn
about this intelligence service operation, on which he hadn’t been
consulted,” the diplomat told AFP.
At the time of the alleged plot, Rouhani was trying to maintain
the support of European capitals for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal,
which was abandoned by the Trump administration but remains on
life-support as European capitals try to keep Iran on board.
When Paris pointed the finger at Iranian intelligence, an
Iranian spokesman voiced denial and alleged that opponents of the
deal in “certain quarters” were attempting to frame Tehran.
The trial is scheduled to take two days, Friday and then
Thursday next week. The court is then expected to adjourn to
consider its verdict before ruling early next year.
It also comes a day after a prisoner swap that saw the release
of three Iranians jailed over a 2012 bomb plot in Thailand, in
exchange for the freeing of an Australian-British lecturer
imprisoned by Tehran for alleged spying.
-AFP
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/11/27/belgium-tries-iranian-diplomat-over-bomb-plot/