GERMANY DETAINS DIPLOMAT LINKED TO RALLY BOMBING PLOT

BERLIN— German prosecutors said Wednesday a court had remanded in custody an alleged Iranian spy accused of plotting to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in Paris last June 30.

The suspect, a Viennabased accredited Iranian diplomat whom opposition groups have named as Assadollah Assadi, 46, was one of several suspects detained in Germany, Belgium and France.

Bombing plot

They had allegedly planned to bomb the rally by an exiled Iranian opposition group in Villepinte near Paris that was attended by several US politicians.

Prosecutors said a court had remanded Assadi in custody on charges of foreign in- telligence activities and conspiracy to murder.

They added that these charges did “not preclude” Assadi’s extradition requested by Belgium.

Anti-opposition

Assadi was believed to be a member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, which is tasked with the “observation and fight against opposition groups inside and outside Iran”, the prosecutors’ statement said.

They said Assadi had in March ordered a married couple living in Antwerp “to carry out an explosives attack” on the rally but the couple were arrested in Brussels on the day of the rally and were in possession of 500 grams of a volatile explosive and a detonator.—