Publication of Arrest Warrant for Iranian Diplomat by German Prosecutor's Office

On Wednesday, July 10, the German Attorney General's Office published the arrest warrant for Assadollah A., an Iranian diplomat, in the country. Mr. Asadi is accused of hiring two other Iranians to attack the annual gathering of the Mojahedin-e Khalq in Paris. According to the official website of the German Attorney General's Office, "Assadollah A" is accused of commissioning an "explosive attack" on the Mojahedin-e Khalq gathering to a couple residing in Antwerp, Belgium, in March of this year. In the published arrest warrant, Assadollah A. is identified as the third consul at the Iranian embassy in Austria and a member of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Intelligence. The Mojahedin-e Khalq news agency names this accused individual as "Assadollah Asadi" and states that he has been the "head of the intelligence station" at the Iranian embassy in Vienna since 2014 and had "issued the final order for the attack on the July 9 gathering to the terrorists." Assadollah Asadi was arrested on Sunday, July 9, near the city of Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, Germany. His arrest followed the detention of an Iranian couple whose vehicle contained half a kilogram of explosives, and investigations into this couple are ongoing in Belgium. Belgium has requested the extradition of this diplomat from Germany. Another Iranian has also been arrested in France on charges related to this incident. Following these reports, Reuters cited unnamed French and German judicial sources stating that the Iranian arrested in France and the Iranian diplomat detained in Germany would be extradited to Belgium. This point is also mentioned in the statement from the German Attorney General's Office: "The interrogation and arrest warrant... does not deny the extradition of the accused to Belgian authorities." The statement also noted that the "accused" delivered "an explosive device with half a kilogram" of explosive material to the couple arrested in Belgium at the end of June this year. In this context, the Iranian Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday, July 3, the summoning of the ambassadors of Germany, Belgium, and France in protest against the Mojahedin-e Khalq meeting and the arrest of the Iranian diplomat. According to Bahram Qasemi, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Abbas Araqchi, Deputy to Mohammad Javad Zarif, expressed Iran's strong objections to the German chargé d'affaires and the French ambassador, calling this case a "scenario" to undermine Iran-Europe relations. This case is a blow to the image of Hassan Rouhani's government on the international stage, especially at a time when this government is under pressure from imminent American sanctions and is also grappling with economic and social protests from the people inside the country. Two news agencies, ISNA and Tasnim, reported on Wednesday, July 3, the identities of the arrested suspects in Belgium as "Amir Saadouni" and "Nasimeh Naeimi," and published images showing Amir Saadouni alongside senior officials of the Mojahedin-e Khalq and their meetings. In contrast, according to the Mojahedin-e Khalq website, Amir Saadouni and Nasimeh Naeimi, who were arrested in Antwerp, Belgium, "posed as supporters of the Mojahedin."