‘Bomb plot’ spy arrested
Iranian diplomat faces trial over failed assassination bid
AN IRANIAN “spy chief” has become the first diplomat in Europe to be put on trial after allegedly masterminding a bomb attack at an anti-regime conference in Paris.
The plot would have seen a bomb packed with “mother of
Satan” TATP explosives – used frequently by Islamic State – detonated in the middle of the Free Iran conference on June 30, 2018, attended by 2,000 people.
It was foiled with just hours to spare by Belgian, French, and German security services.
While National Council of Resistance of Iran presidentelect Maryam Rajavi was the main target, dignitaries sharing the podium included former Canadian PM Stephen Harper, former French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Donald’s Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a clutch of British MPS.
Hundreds of people, including women and children, may have been killed during the ensuing panic, experts say.
It followed a previous plot to use fake journalists to explode a car bomb at the new NCRI headquarters in Albania just three months earlier.
Though technically third consul at Iran’s embassy in Vienna, Assadollah Assadi was said to be the most senior Ministry of Intelligence and Security officer in Europe.
According to Belgian federal prosecutors, he met two Iranian agents, Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naami, on June 28 in Luxembourg and handed them the explosives.
The pair were to transport the explosives by car to the conference venue where they were to meet a third accomplice, Mehrdad Arefani, who was already at the venue posing as an anti-regime sympathiser.
But they were arrested just hours before the exchange as they drove to France.
A spokesman for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office said: “During the search of the terrorists’ vehicle, approximately 500 grams of TATP and an ignition mechanism were found in a small toiletry bag.”
Arefani was arrested at the venue shortly afterwards. It is claimed that when Assadi realised the plot had failed, he bundled his family into a car and began to drive back to Austria.
He was stopped by German police on July 1, before being able to cross the border. Because he was still in Germany, he was unable to invoke his diplomatic immunity and was arrested.
He remains in custody.a court
‘500g of TATP were found’ ‘It’s sobering to learn of threat’
in Antwerp ruled on Wednesday that he must face prosecution alongside the other suspects on charges of an attempted terrorist act and participation in a terrorist group.
Bob Blackman MP, who attended the conference, said: “Speaking as someone who was sitting very close behind Mrs Rajavi it was sobering to learn of this direct threat.”