ANTWERP, 4 February, 2021 (TON): On Thursday, an Iranian official has convicted for master planning a bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France in 2018.

The official has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Belgian court that denied his claim of diplomatic immunity.

Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat detained in Belgium, refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status. He did not attend Thursday’s hearing at the Antwerp courthouse.

It is requested by the prosecutors to grant a maximum of 20 years of a prison sentence on the charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.

The man contested all the charges against him.

Three other people also received jail sentences.

During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs and representatives of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group, or MEK, claimed without offering evidence that the diplomat set up the attack on direct orders from Iran’s highest authorities. Tehran has denied having a hand in the plot.

This is a critical time for the conviction as this case certainly has the potential to embarrass the country as many state leaders may think to join hands with the country just as the U.S. administration now weighs whether to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers.