Ebrahim Raisi Visits Assadollah Assadi

Ebrahim Raisi, on Friday night, visited the home of Assadollah Assadi on the anniversary of the return of Iranian prisoners from Iraq to Iran. Assadi had previously been convicted in Belgium for his involvement in a bombing operation against a gathering of the Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization in Paris. Ebrahim Raisi, the current president of the Islamic Republic, was a member of the so-called 'Death Committee' in 1988, which was responsible for the widespread execution of political opponents that year, with members of the Mojahedin-e Khalq being the majority of the victims of those executions. Assadi was the third secretary of the Iranian embassy in Vienna, Austria. He was arrested three years ago in Germany for his involvement in the bombing operation against the Mojahedin-e Khalq gathering in Paris. His case was examined in the Antwerp terrorism court in Belgium along with three other defendants (Mehrdad Arefani, Amir Saadouni, and Nasimeh Naeimi), and on February 5, 2021, the Antwerp criminal court, rejecting Assadi's diplomatic immunity, sentenced him to twenty years in prison. In June of this year, Iran and Belgium exchanged two prisoners with the mediation of Oman. In this agreement, Olivier Vandecasteele was exchanged for Assadollah Assadi, the Iranian diplomat. Belgian officials had long been calling for the release of 'Olivier Vandecasteele,' a 42-year-old Belgian aid worker who was arrested by the security forces of the Islamic Republic in February 2022 and sentenced to '40 years' in prison on charges of 'espionage.' Alexander De Croo, the Prime Minister of Belgium, announced on April 26 that his country was 'considering' the Islamic Republic's request for 'the exchange of Assadollah Assadi with Olivier Vandecasteele.' The problematic trip of the mayor of Tehran; the possibility of the Belgian Foreign Minister resigning under pressure from representatives. The Islamic Republic claimed: 'Assadi and Noori have devoted their lives to freedom, peace, and establishing security for humanity.' Shirin Ebadi told Voice of America: 'Paying ransom to the Islamic Republic is not in Europe's interest.' Austria announced the freedom and return of two of its imprisoned citizens from Iran; Belgium: a Dane has also been released.