On 23 February, the Former Deputy Speaker of the regime’s Parliament Ali Motahari, in an interview with the Khabar Fouri website, raised concerns about the case of Assadollah Assadi. The Belgian court sentenced to 20 years in prison Iranian diplomat for his role in a bombing attempt against an Iranian opposition rally in 2018.
Assadi worked for the Iranian embassy in Vienna as a diplomat. He used his diplomatic cover to transfer and deliver 1 pound of TATP explosive material to his Luxemburg-based agents in 2018.
Alongside his agents, Assadi was the mastermind of a bomb attack on the Free Iran 2018 Rally, the annual gathering of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), on 30 June 2018, according to indisputable evidence and Belgian prosecutors’ investigations.
After delivering the bomb to his operatives, Nasimeh Naami and Amir Sadouni, the couple were arrested by Belgian authorities.
The Vienna-based Iranian diplomat was detained by the German authorities and French police apprehended the fourth agent Mehrdad Arefani.
Two booklets with instructions on how to detonate the bomb, as well as receipts for his payments to his operatives, were seized by the German authorities. The details revealed the diplomat’s role as the head of Tehran’s European intelligence station.
Assadi’s prosecution has sparked a new round of political rivalries at the cusp of Iran’s presidential election in 2021. Former Deputy Speaker Motahari slammed so-called reformist candidate Zarif and the Foreign Ministry’s secrecy.
Motahari also addressed Assadi’s background as a Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) agent, which was revealed by the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) in 2018.
“Was Assadollah Assadi’s ground operation against the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) a personal initiative or an (MOIS) mission?” Motahari remarked.
“This is not our method, and if someone took such actions, they must be identified and punished. However, they say nothing and only say, ‘A Belgian court has wrongly convicted (Assadi) to 20 years in prison.
They don’t utterly explain the issue to the people. Did the court convicted him for nothing?” Motahari questioned the Foreign Ministry and the entire regime’s secrecy.
He concluded, “They should explain and say that the issue did not actually happen, and if it was true, the perpetrators must be sentenced. These individuals are harming the (Islamic) Revolution’s view, and the government must stop such actions.”
Motahari’s responses are unquestionably the tip of the iceberg that has broken through official and independent media. Maryam Rajavi declared, as the NCRI President-elect, “It is a fact that the Iranian diplomat’s unprecedented conviction is an irreparable blow to the Iranian regime’s terrorism.”
Now is the moment for the international community to decide which would be more crucial: the security and safety of European citizens, or the temporary economic interests of the Iranian regime who funds, promotes, and carry out terrorist attacks on European territory. This is a decision with historical implications that will show whether Europe is making the right decisions.
and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube
