A Belgian lawmaker of Iranian descent said the European country's police warned her of an Iranian plot to abduct her via Turkey after she backed labeling the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group.
"Today, the Belgian police and security services contacted me regarding an alarming situation concerning my safety," Darya Safai said on her X account.
"They had received worrying information indicating that the Islamic regime in Iran wants to kidnap me and take me to Tehran via Turkey," she said, adding that she has been advised against visiting Turkey.
Iran has previously been accused of involvement in the kidnapping and killing of foreign nationals in the United Arab Emirates, according to Emirati and Western officials.
In 2020, German-Iranian dissident Jamshid Sharmahd was kidnapped by Iranian operatives from Dubai and forcibly taken to Iran via Oman. He was sentenced to death and executed in what Amnesty called a "grossly unfair trial" in 2023.
Iran also kidnapped dissident journalist Rouhollah Zam from Iraq after luring him to leave Paris for the Arab country in September 2019. He was later sentenced to death and executed in Iran one year later.
Two other dissidents, Masoud Molavi Vardanjani and Saeed Karimian, the owner of Iran-focused satellite broadcaster Gem TV, were also killed by the so-called Zindashti network, a criminal group linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
On July 15, the European Union sanctioned the network and its leader Naji Ebrahim Sharifi-Zindashti for carrying out assassinations of Iranian dissidents overseas.
Push for blacklisting IRGC
The Belgian lawmaker said the Islamic Republic is plotting to kidnap her just after her resolution to place the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the European terrorist list was approved in the Belgian House of Representatives.
"The regime is now planning to kidnap, torture, and execute a member of parliament from a European country. Or to use it as a bargaining chip in their hostage diplomacy," she said.
Safai called on Western countries to "finally face up to how brazen this regime is."
The IRGC, a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces, was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019 under President Donald Trump. The United States and Canada have urged their European allies to follow suit.
