December 25 2020
An Iranian dissident has been found guilty in a London court of trying to firebomb a diplomatic car at Iran’s embassy in Britain.
Sam Parsa, 59, was found guilty December 17 of arson with intent to endanger life for the incident in September 2018.
The jury at the Old Bailey courthouse in London was told Parsa had placed a bottle containing petrol, heavy petroleum distillate and a piece of scarf in the exhaust pipe of a black BMW at the embassy.
It was said to be a viable incendiary device that could have been ignited by the heat from the car exhaust, creating a “pool of fire” that might have set the vehicle alight.
Parsa then traveled to France to see relatives with a ticket he had booked the day before.
After his arrest, Parsa told police he did not want to hurt anyone and insisted that he was a proud Briton who strongly opposed Iran’s leadership. “I don’t want to do any harm; I’m not a violent person; I am against the bloody regime,” he said.
“My teacher is Bertrand Russell, William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill. I love this country and I am proud to be British; I call myself British—Persian British.”
Later, asserting he had been set up, he said: “They know I am lucky to escape, I am one of those survivors of torture. As soon as an Iranian goes to demonstrate against them, they are very happy to play a game for you guys and for you guys to arrest me.”
Parsa said he spent more than seven years as a political prisoner before being released under an amnesty in 1988 and fleeing to Britain two years later.
He is said to have been a member of the People’s Fedayeen, a Marxist opposition group. When claiming asylum in the UK, the 59-year-old showed officials torture scars, saying: “On five occasions I was whipped, I went unconscious. They also hung me from my hands.
“People would come and beat me. They wanted me to confess I was a group member, they wanted other names. They poured boiling water on my arms and legs. On some occasions they would push my head underwater to try and make me confess.”
Parsa is now awaiting sentencing in January.