a planned attack in France against the Iranian opposition on appeal
Sentenced at first instance for having prepared a plan for an attack during an Iranian opposition rally near Paris in 2018, three people compared until Thursday, November 18 on appeal in Antwerp
Two men and a woman, alleged accomplices in a planned attack against an Iranian rally in France in 2018, appear this Wednesday, November 17 before the Antwerp Court of Appeal, where they continue until twenty years old. from prison.
The protagonist of the case, Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, 49, is not affected by this new trial. He did not wish to appeal his conviction at first instance, in February, to twenty years’ imprisonment, the sentence requested by the federal prosecution.
500 grams of explosive and a detonator
A bomb attack planned to target, on June 30, 2018 in Villepinte, near Paris, the large annual gathering of the National Council of Iranian Resistance (NCRI), a coalition of opponents of the Tehran regime whose main component is the People’s Mojahedin Organization (MEK).
The same day, a Belgian-Iranian couple living in Antwerp was arrested by the Belgian police near Brussels in possession of 500 grams of TATP explosive and a detonator in their car.
Belgian anti-terrorism justice is then seized and investigators quickly go back to the alleged sponsor, Assadollah Assadi. This diplomat, then stationed at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, was arrested on 1uh July in Germany where he no longer enjoys his immunity.
In addition to Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami, the couple who were to go to the meeting with a bomb, a third alleged accomplice, Mehrdad Arefani, was arrested on June 30, 2018. Responsible for scouting in Villepinte, he was arrested in France and then handed over to Belgian justice.
A procedure “illegal and in flagrant violation of international law”, according to Tehran
At first instance, Nasimeh Naami, 37, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, the Antwerp court jailed her particularly “manipulative” personality, and her companion Amir Saadouni, 41, to a firm 15-year sentence. Mehrdad Arefani, a 58-year-old dissident poet, presented as an Iranian intelligence agent acting from Belgium, received a 17-year prison sentence. All three were present on Wednesday at the opening of the trial before the Antwerp Court of Appeal.
” Bloodbath “
This dossier, mixing espionage and terrorism, targeted diplomatic tensions between Tehran and several European capitals, including Paris.
On February 4, after the announcement of the court’s judgment imposing the maximum sentence on Assadollah Assadi, Iran again denounced a judicial procedure “illegal and in flagrant violation of international law”. According to Tehran, Mr. Assadi’s diplomatic immunity has been violated.
The targeted opponents denounced, for their part, a relevant project of “State terrorism”, which could have caused “a bloodbath” while thousands of people attended this meeting in Villepinte. After the trial, scheduled until Thursday, the appeal court will put its decision under advisement. It should not be known for several weeks.