MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2021) The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Belgian ambassador in Tehran to issue a "strong protest" against a 20-year jail sentence handed down to Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi for his alleged role in an attempted terror attack in France in 2018.
"The top Belgian diplomat was summoned by the director general for Western Europe affairs at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received a strong written note of protest by Tehran over the court ruling," a statement published by the ministry read.
During the meeting, the Iranian official stressed Tehran's position that the Antwerp court's decision was unjust and "runs counter" to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the ministry said.
Assadi was sentenced at a court hearing in the Belgian city this past Thursday.
Belgian law enforcement officials said in July 2018 that they had thwarted a plot to kill leading officials of the National Council of Resistance of Iran during a rally near the French capital, Paris. Four suspects, including Assadi, were found guilty.
