{"id":234412,"date":"2021-02-03T15:36:52","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T20:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=234412"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:13:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:13:30","slug":"guilty-verdict-for-iran-regimes-terrorist-isnt-enough-to-eliminate-threats-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/guilty-verdict-for-iran-regimes-terrorist-isnt-enough-to-eliminate-threats-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilty Verdict for Iran Regime\u2019s Terrorist Isn\u2019t Enough To Eliminate Threats To Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Assadollah-Assadi-terrorist-28112020\"<\/p>\n

A Belgian federal court is expected to return a verdict in the case of Assadollah Assadi<\/a> on Thursday. Assadi, a high-ranking Iranian regime\u2019s diplomat, is being tried alongside three co-conspirators in a plot to set off explosives at an international gathering of the Iranian Resistance. The plot was thwarted by multiple European law enforcement agencies in the summer of 2018 and remained under investigation until the first court hearing was held last November.<\/p>\n

Now, a guilty verdict appears all but certain and prosecutors are urging the maximum sentence of 20 years for Assadi, the principal defendant and mastermind of the terror plot. He was not only directing two of his operatives to infiltrate the target venue with a bomb, but also personally provide them with the explosives he\u2019d smuggled from Iran into Austria while traveling on a commercial flight using his diplomatic passport.<\/p>\n

Assadi was employed as third counsellor at the Iranian embassy in Vienna, and he now has the distinction of being the first so-called \u201cdiplomat\u201d to face charges for connections to terrorist activity. He is not, however, the first to come under credible suspicion of such connections. In 2018 alone, diplomats were expelled from France, the Netherlands, and Albania following the discovery of terrorist plots targeting Iranian Resistance groups and individual activists. And in the wake of Assadi\u2019s arrest, a spokesperson for Belgian law enforcement noted that the majority of Iran\u2019s consular officials are actually operatives in the regime\u2019s Secret Service.<\/p>\n

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What you should know about Iran's network of terrorists and spies in EU<\/div><\/div>
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