Belgian court blocks extradition of Iran's terror-convicted diplomat.

 

Belgian court blocks extradition of Iran's terror-convicted diplomat.

A court in Brussels temporarily blocks the extradition of the Iranian regime's terrorist-convicted diplomat, Assadi, to Iran. That after the National Resistance Movement of Iran (NCRI) and other international parties went to court to stop Assad's release after the Belgian parliament passed a prisoner exchange bill with Iran.

The court also announced that it will hear the case on September 19. In doing so, the lower court in Brussels extended an earlier ruling blocking Assadi's extradition to Iran until September 19.

The plaintiffs are several members of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), including NCRI's president-elect Maryam Rajavi, as well as other international parties. They are, according to a statement from NCRI, as follows.

Italy's former foreign minister, Giulio Terzi, Algeria's former prime minister, Sid Ahmed Ghazali, Colombia's former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, former US senator Robert Torricelli, the White House's former director of public relations, Linda Chavez and former The UN official, Dr. Tahar Boumedra.

The plaintiff's lawyers and lawyers representing the Belgian prime minister, foreign minister and justice minister also took part in Thursday's proceedings.

Controversial agreement

In March this year, the Belgian government signed a prisoner exchange agreement with the regime in Iran. According to the agreement, Iranian citizens convicted of crimes in Belgium may request to serve their sentences in Iran and vice versa.

The Belgian parliament passed the controversial bill ratifying the agreement on 20 July. The vote was preceded by heated debate in which several Belgian members expressed their displeasure and opposition to the decision to extradite Assadi.

Exile Iranians and other critics are concerned that the Iranian regime will use the new law to have its convicted diplomatic terrorist, Assadollah Assadi, extradited to Iran.

The regime can now, citing the new law, request that Belgium extradite Assadi to serve his sentence in Iranian prisons. This in turn means that the regime's terrorist diplomat can escape justice and be released when he lands in Iran.

Belgium, in turn, is expected to bring home a Belgian citizen detained in Iran, according to reports and the Belgian government. Some reports also say one of the prisoners included in the prisoner exchange is death row KI researcher Ahmadreza Djalali who previously worked in Belgium.

Opposition leader Maryam Rajavi criticized Belgium's prisoner exchange deal with the Iranian regime in her address to a large rally in Berlin over the weekend, saying.

“I've said it before and I'll say it again. Pinning your hopes on the release of an innocent Belgian hostage in Iran is like taking one step forward and 100 steps back. That because no one will be safe in the future. Every European and American citizen in Iran is today a potential hostage.”

Assadi and his three accomplices convicted of terrorist attacks against the Iranian opposition

A Belgian court last year sentenced Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to 20 years in prison for terrorism and for planning a bomb attack against the Iranian opposition gathering in Paris in June 2018. Earlier this year, an appeals court in Belgium upheld the sentence against three Iranian terrorists like Assadi had recruited for the attack.

The Court of Appeal sentenced Nasimeh Naami and Amir Sadouni to 18 years in prison each, while Mehrdad Arefani received 17 years. All three also lose their Belgian citizenships and must be fined 60,000 euros (640,000 SEK) each.

The court ruled in its verdict that Assadi was the mastermind behind the bombing. He chose not to appeal his sentence and thus accepted the sentence of February 4, 2021.