Posted on 12/14/2022 8:28:07 AM PST by robowombat
Iran sentences Belgian aid worker to 28 years: Family Belgium and Olivier Vandecasteele’s family insist he is innocent, effectively held as a hostage in Tehran’s efforts to force Belgium to release an Iranian agent convicted of terrorism.
Published: 14 December ,2022: 03:42 PM GST Updated: 14 December ,2022: 05:53 PM GST Iranian authorities have imposed a 28-year sentence on jailed Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, a spokesman for his family said Wednesday.
The 41-year-old was arrested in Iran at the end of February and was at one point being held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, reportedly suspected of spying.
Advertisement Belgium and Vandecasteele’s family insist he is innocent, effectively held as a hostage in Tehran’s efforts to force Belgium to release an Iranian agent convicted of terrorism.
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“The family are devastated,” spokesman Olivier Van Steirtegem told AFP, after the Belgian government informed the family of the news.
“Can you imagine? If there’s no solution he could stay in prison until 2050. He’ll be almost 70,” he said, urging Belgium to find a way to revive a prisoner swap treaty.
Van Steirtegem said that Vandecasteele’s family had been invited to meet Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and several ministers on Tuesday.
Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, the family ally said, had received a call from his Iranian counterpart communicating the court’s verdict -- but that they had no details on the charges.
News of Vandecasteele’s sentence, which has not been publicly confirmed by Iranian authorities, will revive debate in Belgium over a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran.
De Croo’s government has described this in the past as the only option for a transfer, and the family spokesman told AFP that this remained the position at Tuesday’s meeting.
“There’s no Plan B,” he noted.
Last week, Belgium’s constitutional court suspended the controversial treaty pending a final ruling on its legality in three months.
Opponents of the Iranian government challenged the deal, which they argue was “tailor-made” to permit the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced last year to 20 years in prison.
An Antwerp court convicted Assadi of supplying explosives to a couple from Belgium who were to travel to Paris to target a meeting of Iran’s exiled opposition.
Iran reacted with fury to the sentencing and the stalled prisoner exchange treaty was proposed as a way to win Vandecasteele’s release, despite concerns it would be seen to reward hostage-taking.
Guilt or innocence is of no consequence.
Based on the Biden rules of prisoner swap, Iran can expect Nuclear secrets in exchange for a discarded soup can.
Well, if not a glbtqprxtz b-ball star, no trades.
Who goes to Iran?
Maybe Belgium will use Biden’s stupidity as precedent...
Yes. That is why the lack of identification of the ‘aid organization’ is interesting.
Maybe if the Belgians can capture a global arms dealer, they can trade him for a black, America-hating, lesbian basketball player.
It sounds like whatever Belgium’s version of a Spook would be.
I would not want to be a captured spy in Iran.
I would not want to be in Iran.
> Who goes to Iran? <
Travelers should follow these three simple rules:
1. Do not go to any Islamic country.
2. Do not take drugs into any country, Islamic or not.
3. Memorize rules 1 and 2.
No American tourist will be safe after Biden’s obscene “trade”.
A fag for a war criminal. This is truly Bizarro World.
It’s mind boggling.
I remember those two girls from, maybe Sweden, that went to run across Morocco or Libya. Raped and beheaded on camera.
There was also a couple that was biking the old Silk Road I think.
No longer breathing.
> arrested in Iran
“in Iran” is the problem. Don’t go there.
Does Iran need a prisoner released and hoping to set up a trade?
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