- A Belgian court sentenced an Iranian diplomat to 20 years in prison for a failed bomb plot in 2018.
- Assadollah Assadi is the first Iranian official to be convicted and imprisoned in Europe since 1979.
- Intel officials tell Insider that they are preparing for attacks and kidnappings of Europeans around the world.
- Visit the Insider Business section for more stories.
Intelligence officials in Europe are expecting revenge attacks from Iran after the conviction and sentencing of one of its diplomats on Thursday, sources told Insider.
A court in Antwerp, Belgium, sentenced Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of plotting to bomb the June 2018 meeting of Iran’s National Resistance Council, an exiled dissident group, in Paris. .
Assadi and his three Iranian co-defendants, some of whom have dual citizenship in Europe, were convicted after an investigation across Europe caught them transporting explosives to the 2018 rally. The plot was ultimately thwarted by French, German and Belgian police .
—Nick Beake (@Beaking_News) February 4, 2021
Although the Islamic Republic was accused of numerous violent operations in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, Assadi – which European intelligence sources described as an intelligence agent under diplomatic coverage – is the first Iranian diplomat to be convicted and arrested in Europe since 1979.
“Assadi is a guy from the Quds Force,” said a Belgian military intelligence officer who works under diplomatic cover in the Middle East, referring to the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
All sources interviewed for this article cannot be named due to the sensitive nature of their work, but their identity is known to the Insider.
“We have collected explicit information that he was responsible for European operations targeting Iranian dissidents across Europe using his diplomatic post in Vienna as a base of operations,” said the official, adding that this is why prosecutors do not consider diplomatic immunity for Assadi. .
“But our certainty about their role also confirms that the Iranians will see this as much more than a normal law enforcement operation, they will see this as an operation against them and may well respond quite aggressively, since Assadi has threatened us. “
In March, Assadi reportedly alerted the Belgian police that his official role as an Iranian agent meant that Belgian or European targets could be hit or pressured to force his release if he was convicted – a threat that Belgian intelligence found credible.
The Belgian official told Insider that security around key locations in Europe and abroad would be scrutinized and, in some cases, likely increased, following Thursday’s sentence.
Belgian citizens living and working in Lebanon, Iraq and parts of the Gulf would also be warned of possible security threats, the official added.
“Our counterparts across Europe are doing the same,” they said.
Police officers seen in a court building during the Assadi hearing on November 27, 2020. Johanna Geron / Reuters
Intelligence officials are also preparing for an increase in the kidnapping of foreign nationals by Iran in the near future.
“Of course they can retaliate, and [the Iranians] have a long history of targeting specific passport holders for kidnapping or imprisonment for later trade, “the Belgian official told Insider.
“Iran has done this in the Gulf, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as within Iran itself, in the past, so the threat, the ability and the will to act are consistent.”
“Iranians never bluff about things like this,” added a retired Israeli intelligence official who remains an adviser to his government.
“They had people arrested in Kuwait in the 1980s, and they and Hezbollah continued to kidnap and kidnap people until they were finally released during the first Gulf War,” the Israeli told Insider, referring to the kidnapping of dozens of foreign hostages. in Lebanon between 1984 and 1992.
“It is even easier to detain someone inside Iran to use as a lever,” added the source. “They do this regularly.”
Before Assadi’s sentence, Iran demanded an exchange for a Swedish-Iranian scientist, of dual nationality, who was arrested in Tehran and sentenced to death for espionage.
A European intelligence source told Insider that Iran was clearly trying to pit European countries against each other.
Several sources interviewed by Insider raised concerns that Djalali could be executed at any time in response to the sentence.
“It is a classic technique of playing allies against each other,” said the European referee. “They can’t get a Belgian, but they have [a] Swede, so they threaten to kill the Swede so that Sweden pressures Belgium to make an exchange. “
“It is transparent and effective.”