Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Belgium, May 5, 2021—Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced to 20 years in prison for a bombing attempt against a major Iranian Resistance gathering, dropped his appeal on Wednesday in Belgium and will serve his sentence.
Assadi was arrested along with three of his co-conspirators in June 2018 as they prepared to bomb the Free Iran rally, the annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), held in France. Assadi was the key coordinator of the attack and personally transferred the bomb from Tehran to Vienna, where his diplomatic mission was located. The terrorists were tried in a court in Antwerp, Belgium. At the time, Assadi tried to raise his diplomatic immunity as pretext to avoid accountability, which was ruled out by the judge.
The court’s February 4 verdict found all defendants guilty and sentenced them to 15-20 years in prison. Assadi received the heaviest sentence.
On Wednesday, the preliminary hearing was held in the Antwerp Court of Appeal to hear the appeal of the perpetrators of the bombing. Assadi withdrew his appeal shortly after. The three other convicts will continue their appeal process.
In a statement, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the NCRI, said, “With the sentence becoming final, it is even more important for the European Union to blacklist the clerical regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards. The regime agents and mercenaries must be prosecuted and expelled, their refugee status and citizenship revoked. The regime’s embassies and official and unofficial centers must be closed. This is imperative to counter-terrorism and subsequent crimes and to safeguard the security of European countries. The regime’s so-called cultural and religious, which are in reality the centers of coordination of terrorism and espionage, must be closed.”
I warn against any backdoor deals with the clerical regime. The regime’s leaders, all who have been implicated in its terrorist crimes over the past four decades, must face justice and be prosecuted. #NoImpunity4Mullahshttps://t.co/v6KC5BGSxy
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) May 5, 2021
Madam Rajavi warned against “state-organized terrorism emboldened by four decades of appeasement vis-a-vis the clerical regime” and underlined the need for a firm policy toward Tehran that holds its leaders to account for their crimes. “The regime leaders, all who have been implicated in its terrorist crimes over the past four decades, must face justice and be prosecuted,” Rajavi said.
In a statement, the NCRI called for the expulsion of the Iranian regime’s intelligence agents, Revolutionary Guards agents, and paid operatives Europe. The NCRI also stressed that to counter the regime’s terrorism and secure European soil against future attacks, European authorities must revoke the refugee status and citizenship of regime operatives posing as dissidents, as well as close down the regime’s official and unofficial embassies.
