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| Bijan Pooladrag and Special Court in the background (montage) |
In Albania, the Special Court against Organized Crime and Corruption sentenced 45-year-old Iranian Bijan Pooladrag, accused of terrorism, to 15 years in prison on Wednesday. Due to the summary trial, he will serve 10 years in prison.
The Iranian was arrested in October 2020 under suspicions that he was put in the service of Iranian intelligence, and that he was preparing to hit exponents of the Iranian opposition movement, Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), sheltered in Albania in the "Ashraf 3" camp. Pooladrag himself had originally been part of them, only to break away afterward, choosing to live outside the camp.
In July of this year, there were reports of threats of a possible attack on the "Ashraf 3" camp, located in the Manza area, near Durrës. After these announcements, the world summit of free Iran planned to take place in this camp those days, was canceled.
The sheltering of the members of the opposition movement was also considered the cause of the massive cyber attack that hit Albania in July of this year. The Albanian government declared that from the specialized investigations, it was proven beyond any doubt that the hand of the Iranian authorities was behind the attack, and as a result decided to cut off diplomatic relations with Iran.
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| Camp Ashraf in Manza houses members of the Iranian opposition movement |
Earlier, in October 2018, Albania had expelled Iran's ambassador and another Iranian diplomat, involved in "activities that harm the security of the country". Two years later, two other diplomats were expelled after being suspected of actually being members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, while the other was part of the operational unit of Iran's secret services.