Analysis by PMOI/MEK
July 13, 2018 – The Iranian regime’s plot to bomb the Iranian opposition convention – “Free Iran 2018” – in Paris was foiled two weeks ago. And yet the subject continues to gain international coverage and growing attention.
Liberation in France cited Agence France Presse on July 11th saying the French government will be extraditing one suspect to Belgium soon, adding an Iranian diplomat is in detention in Germany after a failed plot against the Iranian opposition. This dossier is now entering the new phase and yet specifics in this regard remain very vague.
Raising a significant diplomatic uproar, Belgium’s investigation enjoys cooperation from judicial authorities in France and Germany.
Mehrdad Arefani, an Iranian-Belgian man, was arrested in France and is considered an accomplice. On Wednesday, in court, he agreed to be extradited into the custody of Belgian authorities.
This Iranian regime terrorist, a member of a sleeping cell for years and in contact with Tehran’s intelligence apparatus, was arrested on June 30th when the PMOI/MEK were holding their annual convention in Villepinte just outside of Paris. Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Mayor Rudy Giuliani, two figures very close to US President Donald Trump, were among those taking part in this rally.
On July 3rd a Belgian judge issued a European arrest warrant for him on charges of acting to commit terrorist murder and preparing an attack. This individual will be extradited in a maximum of 20 days. However, the Iranian regime, considering its established relations with Vienna, is demanding the suspect be sent to Austria as soon as possible.
Based on Belgian judiciary intelligence, judges are saying Mehrdad A., who will possibly face 30 years behind bars, was arrested in a hotel room following intelligence from an unknown source. He had a mobile phone with an Austrian SIM card with only one Austrian phone number in its records.
French prosecutors had launched an investigation into participation in criminal terrorist activities two days prior to the Iranian opposition rally and the French security apparatus received orders to see into this matter.
German federal prosecutors issued a statement on July 11th announcing the arrest warrant for the Iranian regime’s diplomat terrorist Assadollah Assadi on charges of espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. Prior to this, he was arrested on July 1st based on a European arrest warrant.
Assadi was a member of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, an entity mainly tasked to take severe action against dissidents inside the country and abroad, and the German judiciary arrest warrant does not in any way contradict Belgium’s extradition request.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) issued a statement shedding new light on this developing matter:
According to reliable intelligence from inside the regime, this terrorist act was decided months ago by Iran’s supreme leader, the president, foreign and intelligence ministers, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force, the IRGC's intelligence Organization, and the deputy for political-security affairs of Khamenei's office. The Ministry of Intelligence and Assadollah Assadi, the MOIS station chief in Austria, were assigned to carry out the operation. Since a few years ago, the MOIS station in Vienna had become the coordinator of the MOIS stations in Europe.
Assadi is one of the MOIS’s veteran agents who was stationed in Vienna since 2014 under the guise of a Third Counselor. His office was at room No 200 on the third floor of the embassy. His main task was espionage and conspiracy against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and he has been traveling to various European countries in this regard. Before Assadi, Mostafa Roodaki was in charge of the MOIS station in Vienna. Roodaki was first transferred to Tehran and then in 2017, he was dispatched to Tirana in order to engage in a conspiracy against the PMOI in Albania.
In fear of the consequences of the exposure of its terrorist operation against the mass number of innocent civilians, and paranoid about the revelations of its other terrorists, the mullahs’ regime seeks to see Assadi would be extradited to Austria and subsequently be transferred to Iran. As such, the clerical regime has resorted to intimidation, blackmail and offering concessions. This is while this terrorist diplomat was active in the preparation for a crime against humanity at the heart of Europe and was directing it.
During their visit to Austria last week, Rouhani and Zarif met with Austria's former minister of defense, who has had very active and close relations with the mullahs’ regime since years ago, in order to have him take the lead to try to free Assadi. The regime’s foreign ministry has claimed in its internal reports that the Austrian government is willing to close the case quickly and will utilize its resources for this purpose.
Iranian Resistance warns against the regime's attempts to divert the investigations and to help its terrorist diplomats in general, and Assadi, in particular, escape the justice and calls for the closure of regime’s embassies and representative offices, and the expulsion of terrorist diplomats and the MOIS and Quds Force agents. This is in accordance with the decision of the Council of Europe on April 29, 1997, which stipulated that the mullahs’ mercenaries and intelligence and security agents should be expelled from European Union Member States and not allowed to enter the EU Member States.
The Iranian Resistance reiterates on the need to disclose and publish all details of the terrorist attack against the grand gathering of Iranians. Public awareness of these details is essential for securing the security of the Iranian dissidents and refugees in particular, and the security of Europe in general.
