An Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi accused of planning to bomb a meeting of an exiled opposition group was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court.
Mr. Assadi was found guilty of attempted terrorism after a foiled plot to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) near Paris in June 2018.
Three of Assadi’s accomplices, dual Iranian-Belgians, were handed jail terms of between 15 and 18 years and stripped of their Belgian citizenship.
Assadi, who was arrested while on holiday in Germany and was later handed over to Belgium, refused to appear in court and is claiming diplomatic immunity, according to his lawyer, Dimitri de Beco.
This lawsuit signifies a historic event, as it is the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in the European Union since Iran’s 1979 revolution, causing tension with Europe.
