Iran protests to Belgium over Iranian envoy's bomb plot case

Heavily armed policemen patroll outside the courthouse during the trial of four persons including an Iranian diplomate and Belgian-Iranian couple before the Antwerp criminal court in Antwerp, on February 4, 2021 [DIRK WAEM/BELGA/AFP via Getty Images]

Iran on Tuesday summoned Belgium’s ambassador in Tehran over the conviction of an Iranian diplomat in a Belgian court on charges of planning to bomb an exiled opposition rally near Paris, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported, says Reuters.

On Thursday, Vienna-based diplomat Assadollah Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in the European Union since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

Belgian prosecution lawyers and civil parties to the prosecution said Assadi was found guilty of attempted terrorism over the 2018 plot, which was foiled by German, French and Belgian police.

“The Antwerp Court ruling violates international law and ignores Belgium’s obligations to the Islamic Republic of Iran, therefore Iran does not recognise it in any way,” IRNA quoted an Iranian foreign ministry official as telling the ambassador.

Three other Iranians were jailed for 15, 17, and 18 years in the trial for their role as accomplices.

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