The Belgian court docket additionally convicted three accomplices of Mr. Assadi, each Iranian and Belgian nationals, sentenced to jail phrases of 15 to 18 years and stripped of their Belgian nationality. All three are believed to be brokers of Iran’s intelligence ministry, prosecutors mentioned.

Belgian state safety chief Jaak Raes mentioned in a letter to prosecutors intelligence officers decided the bombing was a state-sanctioned operation accepted by Tehran.

A spokesman for the Iranian international ministry condemned the decision, calling Mr. Assadi’s detention and sentence unlawful underneath worldwide regulation. “Iran reserves the suitable to make use of authorized and diplomatic means to understand the rights of Assadollah Assadi and to carry governments accountable for the violation of their worldwide obligations”, mentioned the spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, in accordance with the semi-official Fars information company.

Mr. Assadi was connected to the Iranian mission in Austria when he provided explosives for the deliberate assault. Prosecutors mentioned he produced a pound of explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, and a detonator from Iran in Vienna in his baggage, then drove him to Luxembourg. There, he handed it over on June 30, 2018 to an Iranian-Belgian couple in a Pizza Hut. Mr. Assadi was arrested at a gasoline station in Germany, the place he didn’t take pleasure in diplomatic immunity, whereas returning to Austria.

The couple, Amir Saadouni, 40, and his spouse, Nassimeh Naami, 36, had been granted political asylum and later Belgian citizenship. They had been arrested on their approach to Paris from Antwerp on the day of the rally. The fourth defendant, Mehrdad Arefani, 57, was an affiliate of Mr. Assadi who was presupposed to information the couple in the course of the rally.

Iran has been accused prior to now of attempting to eradicate opponents overseas. Denmark has known as for sanctions in opposition to Iran for planning one other assassination there in 2018.

Mr. Assadi was in touch with Iranian brokers throughout Europe, in accordance with paperwork supplied to Belgian prosecutors by police in Germany and the Netherlands, in accordance with Belgian Flemish TV channel VRT. The paperwork embrace a pocket book present in his automotive containing quite a few receipts for funds to individuals recognized solely by pseudonyms.