- Local Name: N/a
- Transliteration: N/a
- Alternatives: N/a
- Status: 2018 – 2018 (Defeated)
- Conflicts: Iranian state terrorism in Europe
The Assadollah Assadi Cell [AAC] was a small terrorist entity that operated at the behest of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence.1 It was headed by Vienna-based Iranian diplomat and top secret service agent Assadollah Assadi.2 The cell consisted of Assadi and at least three of his contacts in Belgium which included a married couple that lived in the Wilrijk suburb of Antwerp and a poet based in Brussels.3 All three were active in the Iranian exiled dissident community. It is unclear whether they were opposition supporters who had been turned or agents who had successfully infiltrated the Iranian regime’s enemies.
In the beginning of 2018, elements within the Iranian intelligence community hatched the plan to attack the Jun. 30 gathering of the National Council of the Iranian Resistance [NCRI] in Paris. The meeting would be attended by tens of thousands of supporters and dignitaries such as former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, ex-Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, former speaker of the American House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and retired French foreign minister Bertrand Kouchner.4 It was believed that the objective of the attack was to kill NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi.5 In March 2018, Assadi informed his subordinates of the operation.6 He later used his diplomatic pouch to smuggle an Iranian-made bomb into Europe on a commercial passenger flight from Tehran to Vienna.7
Israeli intelligence services tipped off their European counterparts after learning of the plot.8 Luxembourger agents were therefore able to witness Assadi deliver the bomb to the Antwerp-based cell operatives on a parking lot in the country on Jun. 28, 2018.9 Two days later, Belgian police intercepted the couple as they were on their way to attack the gathering in a suburb of Brussels.10 Experts control-detonated the bomb. The blast was powerful enough to destroy a bomb robot and injure a police officer.11 Another operative of the cell was arrested in Paris on the same day.12 Assadi was arrested in Bavaria on Jul. 01.13 Both were later extradited to Belgium.14 Belgian police also searched the homes of other Iranians in the towns of Boom, Mons and Leuze-en-Hainaut as well as in the Ukkel suburb of Brussels but made no further arrests.15
Iran unsuccessfully invoked diplomatic unity to protest the arrest of its agents.16 The Belgian government categorically ruled out swapping the detained operatives for a university professor on Iranian death row.17 Trial proceedings against Assadi and his associates began in late 2020. On Feb. 04, 2021, all four key operatives received lengthy prison sentences.18 Assadi was handed a twenty-year prison term. In May 2021, Assadi wavered his right to appeal the verdict.19
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