(Brussels Times) Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi, who has been convicted for his role in a foiled terrorist attack, was given a 20-year prison sentence by the criminal court in Antwerp on Thursday.
The Vienna-based official plotted to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the political wing of the exiled Iranian opposition, near Paris in June 2018.
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.
However, lawyers representing participants in the 2018 rally argued that his immunity is not applicable in his involvement in the planned attacks, as Assadi was outside Austria at the time of his arrest.
