Iran Says Vienna-Based Diplomat Had Immunity during Arrest in Germany

In comments on Sunday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed reports quoting him as saying that immunity of the Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Asadi, was limited to Vienna.

Asadi, on the staff of Iran’s Embassy in Austria, has been taken into custody in Germany on charges of being linked to a bomb attack plot in Paris.

“What I have said was that his diplomatic immunity is related to a diplomatic position he had in Austria,” Qassemi stated, adding that Article 40 of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 grants the Iranian diplomat immunity during trips to or from his mission in Vienna.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said Germany extradited to Belgium the Iranian diplomat suspected of plotting a bomb attack in France, Press TV reported.

Back in June, Belgian authorities said that the Iranian diplomat had been arrested along with a 38-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, suspected of plotting a bomb attack on a meeting of the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Paris, which was attended by US president's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and several former European and Arab ministers.

Iran on Wednesday summoned the German ambassador to Tehran to protest Berlin’s extradition of the Iranian diplomat to Brussels.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in July that the claims about the arrested Iranian diplomat constitute a “sinister false flag ploy”.

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