On Tuesday morning, July 5, as the Belgian parliament started debating a controversial bill proposed by the De Croo government, Iranians and supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) held a large rally in front of the Prime Minister’s office. Protesting a Treaty between the Belgian Government and the clerical regime that is tailored to release a convicted terrorist from a Belgian prison, the protesters shouted slogans at officials in both Brussels and Tehran.
At the same time, Iranians and supporters of the NCRI staged protests in many cities around Europe, the United States, and Canada.
As scheduled on short notice, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian Parliament was supposed to review a treaty between Belgium and several countries, including Iran, on Tuesday morning. The treaty in question makes it possible for convicted felons from foreign origin to be sent to their respective countries to serve the rest of their sentences. The Belgian government secretly signed the treaty with the mullahs’ regime on March 11, 2022, and denied all speculations about it until it was submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday evening, June 30.
Assadollah Assadi, the third secretary of the Iranian regime in Vienna, masterminded the 2018 bombing against an international gathering attended by tens of thousands of people and hundreds of American and European political leaders and lawmakers who supported the NCRI in the Free Iran Summit in the French city of Villepinte. He was arrested by the police and subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison.
On Tuesday afternoon, the NCRI also held a second press conference in Brussels and briefed local and international reporters about the Belgian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee debate and the deal between the Belgian government and the Iranian regime.
NCRI-Press Briefing- Farzin Hashemi: "I heard #Belgium Justice Min tried to justify this shameful treaty, claiming it's a natl. security issue. Let there be no illusion: this is a treaty w/ no.1 state sponsor of terrorism, set to free a convicted terrorist." #DontFreeTerrorists pic.twitter.com/k9mg8Y0he5
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) July 5, 2022
Farzin Hashemi, the Deputy Chair of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee, and Hossein Abedini, another FAC member, as well as Mr. Georges Henri Beauthier and Mr. Rik Vanreusel, the lawyers of 25 plaintiffs in the trial of Assadi spoke at the conference.
“The extradition treaty has been criticized because it allows a convicted terrorist to be released,” Mr. Hashemi told reporters. “It will undermine the good work of the Belgian judiciary. Our lawyers and the National Council of Resistance of Iran fear that the security of Europe will be jeopardized as a result of this Treaty.
He added, “I have heard that the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne, has tried to defend this shameful treaty and said that it is a matter of national security.”
We shall be wary of such illusions,” Farzin Hashemi warned. “This treaty is currently signed by the world’s number one sponsor of state terrorism and is designed solely to free a convicted terrorist, which will have profound implications for European security.”
“We call on the representatives of the Belgian Parliament to reject this treaty, which is truly a stain on Belgium’s reputation as a country that respects the rule of law. The way the government is acting and trying to sandwich this treaty with the Iranian regime alongside treaties with three other countries is really a deceptive way of covering up the concessions they are giving to a terrorist regime.”
“Let’s not forget that Assadollah Assadi, whom Belgium is trying to release, was personally the designer of a terrorist plot in the NCRI meeting on June 30, 2018, in which tens of thousands of people took part. Specifically, the target was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of NCRI. The documents in the investigation showed that Assadi had insisted the bombers place the bomb as close as possible to Mrs. Rajavi and had promised the bombers that they would receive a special reward from Khamenei,” Mr. Hashemi stressed.
NCRI FAC member Hossein Abedini who spoke at the conference has been a victim of the regime’s terrorism himself. In March 1990, he was assassinated and shot in the abdomen and chest in Turkey, only to survive another murder attempt by Tehran’s agents while he was in a coma at a hospital for 45 days.
Calling it a shameful bill, Mr. Abedini stated that the deal has caused protests from Iranians and human rights activists around the world, including in the United States, the UK, Canada, and other European countries.
Today more than 1,000 Iranians gathered in front of the parliament and protested against this bill, and our demand is from the Belgian Parliament to put a stop to this disgraceful treaty. He said that more than 1,000 Iranians have gathered in front of the parliament and the PM’s office, to protest against this bill and to ask the Belgian parliament to put a stop to this disgraceful treaty.
