The second session of the trial of the Iranian terrorist diplomat and three co-conspirators took place last Thursday. Most of the main details outlining the purpose of the trial were laid out the previous Friday during the first session. In short, an Iranian regime diplomat provided a Belgian-Iranian couple with explosives and paid them to detonate them at the Free Iran gathering by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in June 2018 just outside Paris. The main target of the plot was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi – President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) – the main opposition to the Iranian regime.
Regime is feeling the heat in #Iran where its incompetence and brutality have won it no friends amongst its own citizens. A concerted and firm approach by the EU could just be enough to see the regime toppled and replaced by a democratic alternative.#MEK https://t.co/cSRDvLjQ3i pic.twitter.com/O8A7dth1iz
— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) December 7, 2020
Thankfully, the plot was foiled by European authorities. Had it not, there could have been hundreds, or even thousands of casualties and fatalities, including hundreds of foreign officials, religious figures, human rights activists, lawmakers, parliamentarians, and so on.
Absent once again from the court session on Thursday was diplomat Assadollah Assadi. The Iranian regime ordered him to refuse to cooperate and he was told not to attend the court dates. This in itself just adds weight to the argument that the Iranian regime was heavily involved with the terror plot. Furthermore, his lawyers spent little time trying to challenge what the prosecutors said about the plot. His lawyers instead focused on Assadi’s diplomatic status.
The Iranian regime, which is behind the botched and failed bomb attack on #NCRI and #MEK has said nothing to contradict what Assadi has himself been threatening. #Iran https://t.co/cSRDvLjQ3i pic.twitter.com/NzrSXNJI8d
— MEK Iran (Mujahedin-e Khalq) (@MEK_Iran) December 7, 2020
Until his arrest, Assadi was the third counselor at the regime’s embassy in Vienna. He would have been immune from prosecution or arrest in Austria, but he was arrested in Germany after multiple European countries were tracking his activities and movements. He then got extradited to Belgium despite the Iranian regime’s protests.
Assadi’s team wants his diplomatic immunity and benefits to be extended beyond the borders of Austria and they cannot fathom that his involvement in a terrorist plot is any kind of mitigating circumstance that would overrule or cancel any kind of diplomatic benefit.
The prosecutors in the case maintain that Assadi was not working alone – he was working on the orders and alongside the Iranian regime. Although Tehran has not acknowledged that this is true, it has remained equally silent when it comes to denying it. In fact, it would be too complicated for the regime to deny it or to claim that Assadi was a lone agent because it would completely undermine the diplomatic immunity strategy.
This case is unique in that it is the first time an Iranian diplomatic has been formally prosecuted for playing a role in a terror plot. It is great news for the Iranian Resistance that has been warning Europe about the regime’s countless and brazen terror plots on European soil. He is not the first diplomat to work on terror plots with and for the regime, but he is probably the first one that will not be let off the hook.
There are hopes that this will lead the way to tougher restrictions and sanctions on the Iranian regime. Or that it will at least mark the end of policies of appeasement at long last.
and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran – MEK IRAN – YouTube
