Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian NGO employee, has been sentenced in the Iranian capital Tehran to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes, and not 28 years as previously reported. According to the Iranian press agency, this is a man of Belgian nationality, and Vandecasteele is the only compatriot who is imprisoned in that country. His family reported his conviction last month, but the information was not confirmed by the Belgian authorities. Iran does now.
What is this case about?
Vandecasteele has been held in an Iranian isolation cell since February 24 last year. The charge was not known at all that time. In November, he was forced to participate in a possibly staged trial, where he was sentenced to prison. He told the Belgian ambassador that he was then forced to participate in the trial for hours with shackles around his arms and legs.
Now Iran confirms the conviction and reports that Vandecasteele has been convicted of espionage, cooperation with the United States against Iran and money laundering. However, no verdict on that ruling has been made public so far. According to the Iranian news agency Mizan, Vandecasteele will receive 12.5 years in prison for each of those charges and he has also been convicted of money smuggling, for which he has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. Vandecasteele has denied the allegations.
How is Vandecasteele doing in the meantime?
On Wednesday, January 4, the ambassador to Iran was able to meet Vandecasteele in his cell for the seventh time. After ten months in complete isolation, Vandecasteele looked even “thinnier and with deep bags under the eyes”, said the ambassador. His health would only have deteriorated. In November, Vandecasteele had gone on a hunger strike for a few weeks, he only accepted some bread and water in the morning.
How does our country react?
Our country continues to demand his release. “Innumerable diplomatic and political contacts up to the highest level have demanded his release in recent weeks and months and an immediate improvement in his detention conditions,” the State Department said last week. “Olivier Vandecasteele’s situation is and remains a priority for the minister, her department and the Belgian government, who are doing everything they can to get him released.”
Iran is believed to be seeking a trade between Vandecasteele and convicted Iranian terrorist Assadollah Assadi. Belgium negotiated a treaty with Iran to enable the exchange between Belgian and Iranian prisoners, but the Constitutional Court suspended that treaty last month. Vandecasteele’s situation therefore looks particularly hopeless.