2023-06-03 04:15:11
After their release from Iranian detention, two Austrian citizens and one Dane returned to the European Union. The three EU citizens landed at the Belgian military airport in Melsbroek near Brussels after leaving Oman on Saturday night, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said. Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib and Austrian and Danish diplomats welcomed the three freed men at the airport.
A Belgian development worker was released from Iranian custody last week. The releases are part of an exchange with Tehran: In return, an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism in Belgium was released. Assadollah Assadi was arrested in Germany in July 2018 and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Antwerp in 2021 for terrorist assassination attempts against Iranian exiles.
The two Austrian-Iranian dual citizens had been sentenced to years in prison for alleged espionage. The Viennese IT expert Ghaderi had therefore been in prison in Tehran since 2016. Mossaheb, Secretary General of the Austro-Iranian Society, was arrested during a visit to Tehran in early 2019. The two had spent 2,709 and 1,586 days in Iranian detention, according to the Foreign Ministry. According to Belgian sources, the Danish prisoner was arrested last November on the sidelines of a “rally for women’s rights”. His name was not disclosed.
The prisoner exchange has met with criticism from human rights activists. The German activist Düzen Tekkal spoke of a “dirty deal” at the end of May. Among other things, there are fears that the government in Tehran could in future use Western prisoners as a bargaining chip with Western countries. Around 20 EU citizens are currently being held in Iran, most of whom also have an Iranian passport.
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