According to Le Monde, the Belgian police investigations indicate that the Iranian regime planned the failed attack on the MEK gathering in 2018. In an article, Le Monde details the Belgian police investigation into the attack on an Iranian resistance rally in Paris.
The report published on October 10, states a bomb made of acetone peroxide, with remote control. The Bomb scheduled to explode on June 30, 2018, in Villepinte, Paris. It is a town, where the annual meeting of the National Council of Resistance of Iran(NCRI) held.
The bomb could have claimed many lives
“The blast wave could have spread to about 20 meters and claimed many lives, depending on the population,” said Belgian experts.
“The attack foiled at the last minute, when the bomb was en route to France,” Le Monde wrote. The detonating robot destroyed, injuring a police officer, when the army’s detonating unit carefully stimulated to detonate the bomb. Experts concluded that this was a “sophisticated bomb made by a professional.”
The Iranian government was behind this project
Jacques Ross, the head of Belgium’s intelligence service, wrote to the Attorney General on February 20. He wrote, “This was not Assadi‘s personal initiative.”
Asadollah Assadi is the main culprit in this case. The 49-year-old was a diplomat in Iraq from 2003 to 2008 before being appointed third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Vienna in 2014.
His presence in 2017 in Villepinte, Auver-sur-Oise [where the NCRI’s office is located] and near the hotels where the conference’s important guests staying, was also noticed. Many political and diplomatic figures supposed to attend the 2018 gathering.
In 2018, Tehran officials denied any involvement in the operation and promised to provide appropriate explanations. Explanations never provided.
Paris apparently convinced that the Islamic Republic directly involved in the attack. In October 2018, the French government froze the assets of the Deputy Minister of MOIS ,Saeed Hashemi Moghadam. Asadollah Assadi refused to cooperate with the Belgian judiciary at the time of his arrest but threatened to retaliate.
Assadi threatened the person in charge of the case
On March 9, 2019, he told Bourne Prison director that he wanted to meet with one of the investigators in the case. Assadi, threatened the individual in charge of the case that “armed groups” would be ready if he was convicted to take action against the police forces, witnesses, and supporters of the MEK.
The Le Monde correspondent writes that the case cited by the judicial police seems very serious. The project’s precise organization, Assadi’s many trips to Iran, the large amount of money he spent, the meetings he held with his collaborators in different cities. For instance, Luxembourg’s last meeting scheduled to hand over the bomb to Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naemi on June 28, 2018, in a pizza shop in Luxembourg.
The arrest of an infiltrating couple
The couple, who lived near Antwerp, arrested the next day. In addition to 500 grams of acetone peroxide, police found three mobile phones and 35,000 euros in cash in the couple’s Mercedes-Benz car. Unlike the main character of the story, Sadouni talked a lot with the interrogators. Sadouni said that he has worked with Assadi since 2007 and visited Iran several times at his request.
However, he and his wife tried to downplay his role. Both said they thought they were carrying fireworks and feared that something would happen to their relatives in Iran if they did not obey. “This is very doubtful, you do not have to pay 100,000 euros to those whose families you are threatening,” said the other party’s lawyers.
Mehrdad Arefani is the fourth defendant in this case. He arrested in Villepinte. He denies knowing Assadi, but the other side says that Assadi and Arefani have been in constant contact. In addition, Arefani was responsible for gathering information about members of the NCRI.
