Iran "strongly" condemned a Belgian court's decision to sentence an Iranian diplomat convicted of planning to bomb a 2018 meeting of an exiled opposition group in France, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement on Thursday.
"As we have stated many times before, Assadolah Assadi's detention, the judicial process and the recent sentencing are illegal and a clear violation of international law, especially the 1961 Vienna Convention," Saeed Khatibzadeh said according to state TV.
The court in Antwerp sentenced Assadi to 20 years in prison on Thursday.
The diplomat was charged with "attempted murders of a terrorist nature" and "taking part in the activity of a terrorist group.”
The June 30, 2018 gathering in Villepinte, near Paris, included senior leaders of the exiled National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) and some high-profile supporters.
After the attack was foiled, Assadi was arrested in Germany in July 2018, where he was deemed not to be able to claim diplomatic immunity.
Three accomplices, dual Iranian-Belgians, were given jail terms of between 15 and 18 years and stripped of their Belgian citizenship.
