Released, Belgian humanitarian detained in Iran was reunited with his relatives

455 days of detention. Belgian humanitarian Olivier Vandecasteele, released Friday after fifteen months of detention in Iran, in exchange for an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism, was repatriated to Belgium where he was reunited with his relatives in the evening.

The military plane carrying him from Oman, which served as a "facilitator" in the exchange, landed shortly after 21:30 p.m. (19:30 GMT) at the Melsbroek base near Brussels. In a dark suit and sneakers, visibly emaciated but smiling, the 42-year-old French-speaking Belgian was hugged for long minutes by the dozen relatives who were waiting for him on the tarmac, his mother in particular.

Olivier #Vandecasteele hugs his family as he gets out of the plane.
The Belgian humanitarian, detained in Iran for 456 days, was released after a prisoner exchange between Brussels and Tehran facilitated by Oman
He landed tonight on Belgian soil around 21:30 p.m. pic.twitter.com/UrSh5nQvgl

— LN24 (@LesNews24) May 26, 2023

Olivier Vandecasteele was not to speak publicly immediately.

Arrested on 24 February 2022 in Tehran, he was sentenced for "espionage" to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes. His family, who are due to speak to the press on Saturday morning in Brussels, had been denouncing for months the ill-treatment inflicted on their loved one, held in solitary confinement without access to healthcare.

"Free at last!"

"Finally free!" announced Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo at the end of the morning. Not to mention the case of the diplomat Assadollah Assadi, whom Belgium agreed to hand over to Tehran to obtain the return of its national.

This diplomat, at the time stationed in Vienna, was arrested on July 1, 2018 in Germany and then found guilty by the Belgian justice of having fomented a plan of bomb attack that was to target the day before a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI, coalition of opponents), near Paris.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in February 2021 in Antwerp (north) for "attempted terrorist assassinations", to the chagrin of Iran, which denounced a violation of his diplomatic immunity.

Assadollah Assadi arrived in the early evening at Tehran's Mehrabad airport, greeted by Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi and a senior judicial official. According to an image from Iran's Fars news agency, the two men greeted him with flowers and gifts.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reiterated that Assadollah Assadi had been sentenced "in violation of international law."

A risk of encouraging "religious fascism in power in Iran"

Members of the Iranian opposition in exile, who tried - unsuccessfully - to oppose this exchange, immediately denounced this outcome, judging that Belgium had paid "a shameful ransom". "This will encourage the religious fascism in power in Iran to continue its crimes," the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said.

While welcoming the return of Olivier Vandecasteele, the NGO Amnesty International said it was "very concerned" by the release of Assadollah Assadi, which "risks contributing to the climate of impunity" enjoyed by Iranian agents.

A treaty on the mutual transfer of convicts signed in 2022 between Belgium and Iran and entered into force on 18 April had paved the way for this exchange. But the Belgian executive finally resorted to Article 167 of the Constitution granting the diplomat full prerogatives in foreign policy, Belgian government sources said Friday.

Vandecasteele's release comes two weeks after that of two French nationals, Benjamin Brière, 37, who was incarcerated for three years in Mashhad prison in northeastern Iran, and French-Irish Bernard Phelan, 64, who spent seven months in detention.

Several dozen Westerners are detained in Iran, described by their supporters as innocent people used by Tehran as a means of pressure and bargaining chips. Thirty-five nationals of a dozen EU member states, including four French, are still detained in Iran, according to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.