An Iranian diplomat who tried to blow up five British MPs has been jailed for 20 years.
Suspected spy Assadollah Assadi, 48 carried a massive bomb in a diplomatic bag on an Austrian Airlines flight in 2018, and planned to blow up an Iranian democracy rally in Paris.
Tory MPs Bob Blackman, Matthew Offord, Sir David Amess and Theresa Villiers, as well as Labour’s Roger Godsiff were all there and could have been killed if the blast had gone off.
Ms Villiers has called for action against the despotic nation following the conviction after leading the delegation at the a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris in 2018.
She told Trending In The News: “It is shocking that someone representing the Iranian Government has been convicted of this crime.
“If the plot had succeeded, the loss of life would have been appalling.
“I attended the 2018 conference to support reform and human rights in Iran.
“This attempt to murder leading Iranian dissidents who want a democratic future for Iran confirms once again that the regime in Tehran is beyond the pale.
“We need a tough diplomatic response from the UK Government, as was the case for the Salisbury poisonings.”
The device was handed over to agents who planned to plant it at a rally in Paris attended by a 35-strong British delegation, alongside former US President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani and top American politician Newt Gingrich in 2015.
A Belgian Iranian couple, Amir Saadouni, 40, and his wife, Nasimeh Naami, 36 and fourth man were also found guilty of planning the bomb attack on the rally at a court in Antwerp, Belgium.
The couple got 15 and 18 years respectively, while the fourth defendant was sentenced to 17 years.
The sentence ruling said: “This would have been an attack on the democratic state of law and freedom of speech.
“When the army bomb squad wanted to make safe the bomb it exploded a robot was incapacitated.
“Thousands of people were present at the rally in Paris – This would have resulted in many fatalities due to the explosion but also the subsequent chaos.”
After the hearing, prosecution lawyer Georges-Henri Beauthier said: “The ruling shows two things: a diplomat doesn’t have immunity for criminal acts… and the responsibility of the Iranian state in what could have been carnage.”
The TATP ‘Mother of Satan’ device is commonly used in atrocities and a favourite of bile spewing hate groups like ISIS.
It was the choice of explosive used in the Paris suicide attacks of 2015, the Manchester Arena bomb in 2017 and the Parson Green attempted bombing.
The court heard it was smuggled into Europe using a diplomatic bag – which is exempt from airport security searches – on a commercial flight, potentially endangering the lives of hundreds of passengers.
Assadi – a member of a member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affair – and was the first diplomat to be tried for terrorism after a two year investigation led Belgian investigators.
They concluded that the bomb plot was approved by the most senior echelons of power in Iran.
The prime target of the terror attack was Maryam Rajavi, the head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
