European countries applying ‘double standards’: Iran slams European countries for ‘harbouring’ separatists

TEHRAN: Iran on Monday slammed European countries for refusing to extradite leaders of separatist organisations, days after a Danish court convicted three members of one group of spying on the Islamic republic.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh also accused Saudi Arabia of funding the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz (ASMLA), to which the three convicted Iranians belonged and which Tehran designates a terrorist group.

On Friday, a Danish court convicted the trio of spying on Iran on behalf of Saudi intelligence between 2012 and 2020. Danish police had in 2018 foiled a plot -- believed to be sponsored by Tehran -- to assassinate one of the three men. Then Denmark’s counterintelligence forces investigated their activities.

Their sentencing is scheduled for March and they face up to 12 years in prison. On Monday, Khatibzadeh said it was "regrettable" that European countries continued to "harbour" members of such groups rather than extradite them to Iran.

He accused European countries of applying "double standards", given the groups were subject to Interpol-issued worldwide requests to detain their members. "Despite the red notice for these terrorist groups, including ASMLA... European countries have refused to expel the criminal leaders of these terrorist groups or extradite them," he said.

Copenhagen has accused Tehran of a plot to eliminate the senior ASMLA official, in retaliation for a September 2018 attack in Ahvaz, the capital of Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, that left 24 people dead.

Tehran at the time accused Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain of harbouring members of the group, which Iran accused of being responsible for the attack in Ahvaz. Oil-rich Khuzestan has a large Arab minority who say they are marginalised by the authorities. Residents of the province faced a heavy-handed crackdown during a wave of protest in November 2019.

Separately, Iranian-Swedish national Habib Chaab has been detained for more than a year in Iran, having been accused of founding ASMLA. He was charged on January 18 with "terrorism" and spreading "corruption on earth", which generally carries the death penalty.