Iranian Diplomat Terror Plot Trial
On 27 November 2020, Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi and three other Iranian citizens were tried in Belgium, charged with plotting to bomb a 2018 rally of National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political wing of the exiled Iranian political party People's Mujahedin of Iran in France. The trial established that Assadi had smuggled explosives from Iran and was acting on instructions of high-ranking Iranian officials. The charges included "attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group." This is the first trial where a EU country charged an Iranian official for terrorism. On February 4, 2021, Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in jail for “attempted murder and involvement in terrorism.” Nassimeh Naami was sentenced to 18 years, Amir Saadouni to 15 years, and Mehrdad Arefani to 17 years. Background In June 2018, Belgian police intercepted 36-year-old Nassimeh Naami and 40-year-old Amir Saadouni driving from Antwerp and carrying a detonato ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan to the north, by Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, and by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. It covers an area of , making it the 17th-largest country. Iran has a population of 86 million, making it the 17th-most populous country in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East. Its largest cities, in descending order, are the capital Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Karaj, Shiraz, and Tabriz. The country is home to one of the world's oldest civilizations, beginning with the formation of the Elamite kingdoms in the fourth millennium BC. It was first unified by the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, in the seventh century BC, and reached its territorial height in the sixth century BC, when Cyrus the Gr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Diplomatic Bag
A diplomatic bag, also known as a diplomatic pouch, is a container with certain legal protections used for carrying official correspondence or other items between a diplomatic mission and its home government or other diplomatic, consular, or otherwise official entity. The physical concept of a "diplomatic bag" is flexible and it can take many forms (e.g., a cardboard box, briefcase, duffel bag, large suitcase, crate or even a shipping container). Additionally, a diplomatic bag usually has some form of lock and/or tamper-evident seal attached to it to deter or detect interference by unauthorized third parties. The most important point is that as long as it is externally marked to show its status, the "bag" has diplomatic immunity from search or seizure, as codified in article 27 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations., p. 8 It may only contain articles intended for official use, though there have been numerous cases where the privileges of the diplomatic bag ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
State-sponsored Terrorism
State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terrorist organizations, providing training, supplying weapons, providing other logistical and intelligence assistance, and hosting groups within their borders. Because of the pejorative nature of the word, the identification of particular examples are often subject to political dispute and different definitions of terrorism. A wide variety of states in both developed and developing areas of the world have engaged in sponsoring terrorism. During the 1970s and 1980s, state sponsorship of terrorism was a frequent feature of international conflict. From that time to the 2010s there was a steady pattern of decline in the prevalence and magnitude of state support. Nevertheless, because of the increasing consequent level of violence that it could potent ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Failed Terrorist Attempts In Europe
Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person might consider a failure what another person considers a success, particularly in cases of direct competition or a zero-sum game. Similarly, the degree of success or failure in a situation may be differently viewed by distinct observers or participants, such that a situation that one considers to be a failure, another might consider to be a success, a qualified success or a neutral situation. It may also be difficult or impossible to ascertain whether a situation meets criteria for failure or success due to ambiguous or ill-defined definition of those criteria. Finding useful and effective criteria, or heuristics, to judge the success or failure of a situation may itself be a significant task. In American history Cultural histor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2020 In Belgium
Events of the year 2020 in Belgium. Incumbents *Monarch: Philippe *Prime Minister: Sophie Wilmès (to 1 October); Alexander De Croo (from 1 October) Events * 1 January — Two Belgian soldiers serving with UN forces in Mali injured by an improvised explosive device. * 19 January – First international sleeper train service to leave Belgium since 2003 launched. * 4 February – First confirmed case in the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, carried by a Belgian repatriated from China three days previously. * 23 February – Under international media scrutiny, the Carnival of Aalst features groups costumed as caricatures of Jews, with participants insisting that their intent was satirical rather than anti-semitic. * 4 March – Archaeological discovery of a Roman ironworks in Ninove publicised: the only such find so far in Belgium. * 17 March – Prime Minister broadcasts stricter social distancing measures in response to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Kazem Rajavi
Kazem Rajavi ( fa, کاظم رجوی) (8 February 1934 – 24 April 1990) was a university professor known for his work as a human rights advocate. He was also the elder brother of Iranian Mujahedin leader Massoud Rajavi. When, in 1971, Massoud Rajavi was arrested and sentenced to death, Kazem Rajavi managed to prevent the execution by forming an international campaign and changing the verdict to life imprisonment. He engaged in international endeavors to defend human rights in Iran, held graduate degrees in law, sociology and political science, and was a "major opposition voice to the fundamentalist government of Iranian". He was a political science professor at Geneva University. He is believed to have been assassinated by Islamic Republic of Iran agents. Career Kazem Rajavi was Iran's first Ambassador to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva following the 1979 Iranian Revolution. However, he left the post just after one year. Rajavi was also a orator and well-known h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Iran And State-sponsored Terrorism
Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the government of Iran has been accused by several countries of training, financing, and providing weapons and safe havens for non-state militant actors, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and other Palestinian groups ( Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC)). These groups are designated terrorist groups by a number of countries and international bodies; however, Iran considers such groups to be "national liberation movements" with a right to self-defense in the face of Israeli military occupation. The United States State Department has also accused Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias of terrorism against US troops, and Iran of cyberterrorism, primarily through its Quds Force. [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Maryam Rajavi
Maryam Rajavi ( fa, مریم رجوی, , fa, مریم قجر عضدانلو) is a leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), an organization advocating for the overthrow of the Iranian government, and president-elect of its National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). She is married to Massoud Rajavi, who is the co-leader of MEK. Early life and education Rajavi was born Maryam Qajar-Azodanlu on 4 December 1953 in Tehran, Iran. She was raised in a middle-class family of civil servants descended from a member of the Qajar dynasty. She attended the Sharif University of Technology in Iran, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in metallurgy. Political career Rajavi has stated that her political activism began when she was twenty-two after her sister Narges was killed by SAVAK. Her other sister, Massumeh, was also executed (while pregnant) in 1982 by Ruhollah Khomeini’s regime. Then she became a member of the People's Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and began her polit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Iranian Students News Agency
The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) is a news agency run by Iranian university students. Position It covers a variety of national and international topics.Engber, Daniel. What's With the Iranian Students News Agency?, ''Slate'', 2 February 2006. Retrieved 7 February 2007. Editors and correspondents are themselves students in a variety of subjects, many of them are volunteers (nearly 1000). ISNA is considered by Western media to be one of the most independent and moderate media organizations in Iran, and is often quoted. "While taking a reformist view of events, ISNA has managed to remain politically independent. It has, however, maintained its loyalty to the former president and carries a section devoted to "Khatami's perspectives". Although it is generally considered independent, the ISNA is financially supported in part by the Iranian government and is supported by ACECR (Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research), another student organization. The agency's ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Diplomatic Immunity
Diplomatic immunity is a principle of international law by which certain foreign government officials are recognized as having legal immunity from the jurisdiction of another country.Diplomatic and Consular Immunity: Guidance for Law Enforcement and Judicial Authorities U.S. Department of State, Office of Foreign Missions. It allows diplomats safe passage and freedom of travel in a host country and accords almost total protection from local lawsuits and prosecution. Diplomatic immunity is one of the oldest and most widespread practices in ; [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Waterga ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |