A Belgian court convicted the Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi of attempting to bomb a rally in France organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an Iranian dissident group linked to the Mujahedeen Khalq, or M.E.K. The court convicted Assadi on charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group and sentenced him to 20 years in prison. The court also convicted three Belgian-Iranian dual nationals associated with Assadi: Amir Saadouni, Mehrdad Arefani, and Nassimeh Naami, whom Belgian authorities have linked to the Iranian Intelligence and Security Ministry. According to Belgian officials, Assadi brought the explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, and a detonator, from Iran to his diplomatic post in Vienna and drove the items to Luxembourg where he provided them to his co-conspirators. German authorities arrested Assadi as he was returning to Vienna. Belgian officials have described Assadi as an operative for the Iranian Intelligence and Security Ministry and linked him to Department 312, a subdivision of the ministry listed by the European Union as a terrorist organization.