https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...-mps-6mjtldtjd
Iranian ‘bomb plot’ targeted Tory MPs
An Iranian diplomat planned to carry out a terrorist attack in France that could have killed five British MPs and Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, a court has been told.
Assadollah Assadi, 48, failed to appear yesterday for the opening of his trial at which he is accused of masterminding a foiled attack on an event held by Iranian opposition activists in June 2018. The event, near Paris, was attended by the Conservative MPs Bob Blackman, Matthew Offord, Theresa Villiers and Sir David Amess and Labour’s Roger Godsiff, as well as 30 other British officials.
Mr Assadi and three alleged co-conspirators are being tried in Antwerp. Two of them, Amir Saadouni, 40, and his wife Nasimeh Naami, 36, were arrested in Belgium, supposedly en route to the event. Mehrdad Arefani, 57, was arrested in Villepinte, on the outskirts of Paris, where the event was taking place, and Mr Assadi was arrested in Germany and extradited.
Belgian prosecutors claim that the plot was concocted with support from Tehran. Representatives of the Mujahidin-e-Khalq opposition group, whose annual rally was the alleged target, claimed that Mr Assadi had been ordered by Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, not to attend. Thousands of activists and politicians were there, and police believe that the plot would have caused mass loss of life had it succeeded.
Yesterday Mr Assadi’s lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, said that he would be arguing that his client had diplomatic immunity, which is denied by the European authorities. They claim that he did not have immunity in Germany, where he was arrested.
Mr Assadi is accused of being an undercover intelligence operative. He was officially serving as the third counsellor in Iran’s embassy in Vienna at the time, but is also an officer of the Iranian intelligence and security ministry. Prosecutors say that he boarded an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna from Tehran carrying the explosive device in his baggage.
He is accused of driving to a Pizza Hut in Luxembourg and handing over the bomb to Mr Saadouni and Ms Naami. The couple, who are of Iranian origin but had been granted political asylum in Belgium, were arrested in their car, in which police found explosives. The European authorities had received a tip-off from Israeli intelligence.
All four defendants deny the charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. The trial is expected to last for three or four days, with the vedict to be delivered a month later. The defendants could face prison sentences of 20 years or more if convicted.
It is the first time that a European country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism charges. Tehran has threatened a “proportionate response” against countries involved in the trial......