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Belgian support employee Olivier Vandecasteele has been sentenced to twenty-eight years in jail in Iran for a “fabricated collection of crimes,” Belgium’s justice minister mentioned on Wednesday, including the federal government was doing every thing attainable to safe his launch.
Vandecasteele had been sentenced as retribution for a jail sentence Belgium imposed on an Iranian diplomat final yr, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne mentioned within the Belgian parliament.
“This can be a compatriot who was innocently arrested in February and has been held underneath inhumane situations since,” he mentioned.
Belgium has repeatedly mentioned there are not any grounds for the detention of Vandecasteele, 41.
The Iranian International Ministry declined to remark.
“It is a shame and a tragedy for Olivier and his household,” household spokesman Olivier Van Steirtegem informed Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. “He’s harmless and the sufferer of a bigger, shady worldwide recreation.”
Swap suspended
Final week, the Belgian constitutional court docket suspended an settlement between Iran and Belgium that will have made it attainable to swap prisoners between the 2 international locations. However Van Quickenborne mentioned the settlement would legally nonetheless be related for Vandencasteele.
That deal was seen by his household as his solely hope. Belgian media recommended he may be swapped for Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian who final yr was discovered responsible of tried terrorism and sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment in Belgium in reference to a foiled plot to bomb a 2018 rally of the Nationwide Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French-based dissident group.
Van Quickenborne mentioned Vandecasteele’s state of affairs was instantly linked to the sentencing of Assadi, who labored as a diplomat on the Iranian Embassy in Vienna, Austria.
Prosecutors mentioned his place was a canopy for actions towards members of the Iranian opposition in Europe.
Iran dismissed all terrorism costs and known as the Paris assault allegations a “false flag” stunt by the NCRI, which it considers a terrorist group.
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