An Iranian diplomat who was sentenced by an Antwerp, Belgium court in February to 20 years in prison for his role in a failed 2018 bomb attack in Paris has dropped an appeal and will serve out his sentence.
According to Reuters, Belgian authorities have stated that a potential prisoner swap with Western prisoners is not in the works.
Assadollah Assadi’s 20 year sentence for attempting to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a France-based Iranian dissident group, was the first EU terror trial of an Iranian official since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
"This has been a political trial since the beginning and he does not want to participate any longer," Assadi's lawyer Dimitri de Beco said in a press conference with reporters in Antwerp, reported Reuters.
The Belgian court wrote in its judgement that Assadi was the head of a state intelligence network and that he smuggled explosives on a flight from Iran to Austria.
Iran’s mission to the EU accused Belgium of breaking international law in a statement and said that it would use all legal means at its disposal.