Belgium Requests Iran Return Aid Worker Jailed for over a Year

Belgium says it has formally asked Iranian authorities to repatriate jailed aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, as a disputed prisoner exchange treaty between Tehran and Brussels formally entered into force on April 18.

"I can confirm that Belgium has today submitted to Iran a request for the transfer of Mr. Vandecasteele," a spokesman for Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told AFP.

Earlier, Lahbib tweeted that she had informed her Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, of the request.

"I denounced his conditions of detention and requested a visit by our ambassador in Iran," the minister wrote.

Western governments have repeatedly accused the Islamic Republic of taking dual and foreign nationals hostage to use them in prisoner swaps or as a bargaining chip in international negotiations.

Agents of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested Vandecasteele, who worked for aid organizations in Iran for six years, in February 2022. 

In January this year, state media reported that a Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced Vandecasteele to 40 years in prison, 74 lashes and a fine after what Amnesty International called a “grossly unfair” trial that lasted only 30 minutes.

The Belgian government is eyeing a prisoner swap for Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian official jailed in Belgium for masterminding a plot to blow up a 2018 Iranian opposition event outside Paris.

A potential exchange was held up for months after a legal challenge by an Iranian opposition group to the prisoner exchange treaty with Tehran.

The complaint was dismissed by Belgium's Constitutional Court in March, fuelling hopes that Vandecasteele could be repatriated.

The family of Vandecasteele, 42, recently said he was being held in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison and that he complained in a brief phone call that "he could no longer sleep and could barely stand up straight because of excruciating muscle and nerve pain."

"He is not being treated for this. His detention conditions have not changed and he is not given enough food to preserve his health," the family said, adding, "Olivier is totally worn out. He cannot remain the pawn of talks between two countries. His life is at stake."