To:
The Prime Minister of Belgium
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium
The Minister of Justice of Belgium
The President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Belgian Parliament
Brussels
An urgent call not to free the Iranian diplomat-terrorist Asadollah Assadi
Rome, July 3, 2022 – The Italian Federation for Human Rights learned with worry that the Belgian Parliament is going to vote, with an urgent procedure, a bill to approve a recent treaty between Iran and Belgium on the exchange of convicts. Such law, which would allow Iranian convicted criminals serving prison sentences in Belgium to be transferred to the territory of Iran, would apply, in particular, to the Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to bomb a gathering of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) near Paris in June 2018 – attended by tens of thousands of people including also high-profile personalities from a number of countries. Had he managed to enact that plot, it would have been one of the bloodiest terrorist acts in Europe.
While theoretically, the treaty should mean that the transferred person would serve in Iran the remaining period of the sentence imposed on him, it is clear from several past examples that he would simply escape justice. The Iranian regime, which should be held accountable for sponsoring terrorism in several countries, would be in this way, on the contrary, encouraged to continue its murderous policies.
The Iranian terrorism is a threat not only for Belgium and for France, which was directly targeted by Assadi’s plot, but for the whole Europe. We therefore ask the Belgian Parliament and Government not to free Assadi, and to keep a firm stand towards the ayatollahs’ regime of Tehran.
Antonio Stango, President, Italian Federation for Human Rights
The Italian Federation for Human Rights (Federazione Italiana Diritti Umani – FIDU) is active since 1987 as the Italian Helsinki Committee. FIDU promotes the protection of human rights as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe of 1975, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 2007 and in other relevant international documents.
