Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh has reacted to the media hype that came after an appeals court in Belgium issued rulings for three people who, as per baseless accusations, are said to have been in touch with Asadollah Asadi, the Iranian diplomat who is illegally jailed in Belgium.

 The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said just as said before, all the stages of detaining, trying, and issuing the court ruling for Asadi have been in gross violation of the Vienna convention regarding diplomatic rights. Khatibzadeh noted that Iran has already protested to Austria, Germany and Belgium officially and it has time and again rejected the accusations leveled against Mr. Asadi and demanded that he be immediately freed.

The Foreign Ministry spokesperson also described the whole issue a preplanned scenario which has been acted by a terrorist group (MKO) with the goal of Iranophobia. Khatibzadeh went on to stress that alongside diplomat measures, Iran is actively pursuing the matter through legal channels and the European sides involved in the issue of Asadi have been called to account.
“In addition to his immediate freedom, we will push for compensation, rehabilitation, and commitment to not repeat a similar action”, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman added.

In the end, Khatibzadeh underlined that the basic rights of Asadi during all the stages of detention to the judicial proceedings and even after the issuance of a verdict were severely and in an unfortunate manner violated by the self-styled defenders of human rights.
He noted that the other sides must be held accountable for the rights violations.