An Iranian diplomat will be tried in Belgium today, Friday, for plotting to bomb a gathering of Iranian dissidents near Paris in the summer of 2018, in a case that sparked diplomatic tensions between France and Iran.
In October 2018, Paris accused the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence of being behind the attempted attack, which Tehran strongly denied.
The diplomat called Asadullah Asadi (48 years), who faces life imprisonment and denies the charges against him, has been "identified, with certainty, as an element of intelligence," according to what a French diplomatic source said earlier.
The Belgian authorities thwarted the attack, which was to be targeted on June 30, 2018, in Villepinte near Paris, the large annual gathering of the "National Council of Resistance of Iran", an opposition coalition led by the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, or the Mujahedin-e-Khalq.
On the morning of that day, Belgian police arrested a Belgian couple of Iranian origin in Brussels, who had 500 grams of an explosive and a detonation device in their car.
The arrested spouses, Nassima Naamei (36 years) and Amir Saadouni (40 years), along with Asadullah Asadi and another man suspected of involvement in the case, Mehrdad Arefani (57 years), are represented before the Antwerp Criminal Court in Belgium.
The four will be tried on charges of "attempted murder of a terrorist nature" and "participating in the activities of a terrorist group", and they face life imprisonment.
It is noteworthy that Asadi, who was presented by the prosecution in his capacity as the coordinator of that attack attempt, was working at that time in the Iranian embassy in Vienna. He was arrested during his visit to Germany, where he no longer enjoys diplomatic immunity.
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