International repercussions of the atrocious deal between the Belgian government and the Iranian regime for the release of the Iranian terrorist diplomat
Asadollah Assadi, Iranian regime diplomat in Vienna, was the mastermind of a plot to bomb an international gathering attended by tens of thousands of people and hundreds of American, European, and Middle Eastern personalities in support of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Paris on June 30, 2018. Assadi, a senior officer of the Ministry of Intelligence, personally transported the bomb, made in Tehran, to Vienna on a passenger plane.
Assadi personally took the bomb through Germany to Luxembourg, handing it over to the two bombers. On the day of the event, June 30, the two terrorists from the Assadi network were arrested in Brussels while carrying the bomb to the venue. Another terrorist was arrested at the site of the conference.
On July 1, 2018, Assadi was arrested in Germany, and 100 days later, on October 10, 2018, he was extradited to Belgium. In February 2021, the Anti-Terrorism Court of Antwerp, in an unprecedented ruling while rejecting Assadi's claim of diplomatic immunity, sentenced him to the maximum sentence of 20 years. Three other terrorists were sentenced to 15 to 18 years in prison.
The case has 25 private plaintiffs. In addition to the National Council of Resistance of Iran and its members, several American, European, and Middle Eastern figures who participated in the June 30 gathering are private plaintiffs in the case.
Experts testified in court that had this plot not been thwarted in the last minute, it would have become the bloodiest terrorist incident in Europe.
In May 2021, Assadi waived his right to appeal in order to prevent a larger scandal and accepted his conviction. He is serving his sentence in prison.
On February 19, 2022, on the sideline of the Munich Security Conference, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met with Sophie Wilmès, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium. In this meeting, Amir Abdullahian raised the issue of Asadollah Assadi with the Belgian Foreign Minister and asked for a solution to this issue.
On March 11, 2022, the Belgian government signed a treaty with the Iranian regime on the transfer of convicted persons, according to which persons convicted of crimes can spend the remainder of their sentences in their own country. Clearly, the goal was to return Asadollah Assadi, the diplomat terrorist of the clerical regime, to Iran. This treaty was not made public before June 29, 2022.
The treaty was presented to the Belgian Parliament on June 29, 2022 for urgent ratification; its urgency was approved and made public on the night of June 30, 2022. This bill must first be approved by the foreign affairs committee and then voted on in Parliament. Accordingly, this bill will be reviewed in the first meeting of the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, July 5. The foreign affairs committee has meetings from 10 am to 1230 pm. If the Belgian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee approves, the bill will be voted on in Parliament.
This treaty has been vehemently opposed by opposition parties in Belgium and widely opposed by European and American figures. Among others, the representatives of the American Congress, the former United States Attorney General, the former Deputy Secretary of State of the United States, and parliamentary groups of Friends of Free Iran in England, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Parliament have strongly condemned it. The wave of protest is growing.
Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the Iranian resistance of Iran, in a message emphasized that, if adopted, the bill will encourage the religious fascism in Tehran to advance its terrorism on European soil. She asked the representatives of the Belgian people in Parliament to refuse this bill.
She also called on lawyers, political dignitaries, Belgian MPs, MEPs, and MPs in other European countries to take urgent action to prevent the bill's adoption.