Belgian assist employee and Iranian diplomat freed in prisoner swap deal

Iran has freed a Belgian assist employee who had been held on espionage costs, in return for the discharge of one in every of its diplomats accused of a foiled try to bomb a gathering in France of Iran’s opposition.

The pair have been swapped on Friday in Oman following a deal mediated by the Gulf nation. Help employee Olivier Vandecasteele, who was arrested in 2022, had been sentenced to 40 years in jail whereas Iranian diplomat Asadollah Asadi was handed a 20 years sentence after being discovered responsible in Belgium in 2021 in reference to the 2018 bomb plot.

Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s international minister, stated in a submit on Twitter that the “harmless” Asadi was “on his manner again house” and would return to the Islamic republic shortly.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stated on Friday: “Olivier Vandecasteele is on his strategy to Belgium. If all goes to plan, he’ll be with us this night. Free finally.”

He stated Vandecasteele had been flown to Oman on Thursday “the place he was taken care of by a staff of Belgian troopers and diplomats”. There he additionally went by way of medical examinations “to evaluate his state of well being and to allow him to return in the absolute best situations”.

A prisoner trade treaty between Belgium and Iran was struck in 2022 and upheld by Belgium’s constitutional court docket this spring. Belgium has rejected the Iranian costs towards Vandecasteele, and De Croo on Friday reiterated the help employee’s innocence.

Dozens of European nationals are believed to have ended up in Iran’s jails lately, in line with western diplomats in Tehran, some to be later traded for Iranian prisoners held in different international locations.

Asadi was excessive up on the listing of those that Iran was eager to swap. So too is Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official who was final yr sentenced by a Swedish court docket to life in jail for committing struggle crimes. Iran is eager to swap him with a Swedish-Iranian nationwide charged with spying for Israel, in line with western diplomats.

Not less than three twin Iranian-US nationals have been held in Iran’s jails for plenty of years. The Islamic republic has stated they might be swapped with Iranian prisoners in America with out clarifying who the Iranians are. Iran has additionally linked their launch, Iranian analysts and western diplomats say, to the unfreezing of about $7bn of Iran’s petrodollars caught in South Korean banks because of US sanctions.

Oman and Qatar have been attempting to ease tensions between the Islamic republic and the west over the destiny of jailed prisoners. Oman’s international ministry stated earlier on Friday {that a} deal had been reached by which prisoners have been taken from Tehran and Brussels to its capital Muscat to be repatriated.