{"id":251103,"date":"2021-11-20T10:29:05","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T15:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=251103"},"modified":"2023-01-29T15:25:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T14:25:32","slug":"broader-accountability-is-needed-in-wake-of-convicted-iranian-terrorists-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/broader-accountability-is-needed-in-wake-of-convicted-iranian-terrorists-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Broader Accountability Is Needed in Wake of Convicted Iranian Terrorists\u2019 Appeal\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Assadis-case\"<\/p>\n

Although the mastermind of a 2018 Iranian terror plot has declined to appeal the 20-year sentence handed down by a Belgian court earlier this year, his three co-conspirators are presently attempting to have their 15 to 18-year sentences reduced or overturned. Their prospects appear dim, considering that their handler has tacitly acknowledged guilt while European authorities presented clear evidence that two of the co-conspirators received a bomb from and were arrested en route to rendezvous with an operative who had already infiltrated the target venue.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That venue was located just outside of Paris, where the National Council of Resistance of Iran had organized its annual Free Iran rally<\/a> and conference. The bomb consisted of 500 grams of the high-explosive TATP, which experts testified would have killed hundreds of participants in reality. The ensuing chaos would have likely raised the death toll even further, especially considering that the crowd size on June 30, 2018, was over 100,000 people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vast majority of\u00a0those attendees were Iranian expatriates and ethnic Iranians who had traveled to Paris from throughout the world to show support for the cause of regime change and democratic governance in their homeland. But hundreds of attendees were lawmakers, policy experts, scholars of\u00a0foreign affairs and international law, and other high-profile dignitaries from throughout the world.\u00a0Considering that the main target of the bomb plot was the keynote speaker and\u00a0the NCRI\u2019s President-elect, Mrs.\u00a0Maryam Rajavi<\/a>, there is little question that the event\u2019s VIP section would have accounted for a major portion of the casualties.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the trial of Assadi,\u00a0Belgian prosecutors plainly declared\u00a0that the terror plot originated at the highest levels of the Iranian regime. And even before that, the NCRI had publicly attributed the planning to Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, thus implicating\u00a0a number of\u00a0leading officials including\u00a0the regime\u2019s\u00a0then-President Hassan Rouhani, a so-called moderate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While European leaders kept their faith in the \u201cmoderate\u201d administration<\/a> of Rouhani, the regime\u2019s knowledge of the operation should never have been in doubt, considering that the mastermind, Assadollah Assadi, was a high-ranking diplomat and traveled back and forth between Tehran and Vienna at the time the plot was taking shape.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Assadi even went so far as to personally transport the explosives into Europe on a commercial flight, using his diplomatic pouch to evade security screenings. He then hand-delivered the bomb along with instructions to Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami, an Iranian-Belgian couple<\/a> who were recruited years earlier. The explosives passed through at least three European countries before being confiscated at the French border and detonated by Belgian police. Despite standing outside of a secure perimeter, one officer was slightly injured by the blast, a testament to the power of the device that the couple acquired in Luxembourg before driving across Belgium.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Iran's diplomat & the largest terror plot in Europe. What was Assadollah Assadi's role<\/div><\/div>
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