REUTERS/Johanna Geron
- Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat, has been convicted of plotting to bomb a meeting of Iranian dissidents.
- The July 2018 meeting was attended by figures including Rudy Giuliani.
- Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
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Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi has been convicted of plotting to bomb a rally near Paris of an exiled Iranian dissident group that was attended by Rudy Giuliani
Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison having been found guilty by a court in Antwerp, Belgium, of the plot to bomb the June 2018 meeting of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reported the Associated Press.
The plan was foiled by French, German and Belgian police.
According to Belgian prosecution documents obtained by Reuters, Assadi transported explosives to be used in the attack with him on a commercial flight from Iran to Austria, where he was stationed in Vienna.
He is the first Iranian official found guilty of terrorism in the European Union, Reuters said.
Three co-defendants of Assadi were also convicted on Thursday, reported AFP.
The meeting of the NCRI in the town of Villepinte outside Paris was attended by high-profile supporters of the group, including Rudy Giuliani, former president Donald Trump's personal attorney.
At the meeting, Giuliani delivered the keynote speech.
Iran has rejected claims that Assadi was acting on official orders, calling the operation a "false flag" by the NCRI, which it classifies as a terror group.
Deutsche Welle reported that Assadi had refused to appear in court to answer to the charges.
The NCRI is the political wing of the MEK, a controversial movement once listed as a terror organization by the US and likened by critics to a cult.
Trump officials had brokered ties with the movement as the administration ramped up pressure on Tehran following the US exit from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3avPfzK
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