2023-04-18 08:31:16
The aid worker has been imprisoned for 418 days in Iran and his conditions of detention have deteriorated once more, according to a statement sent by his family and relatives. Asked on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that she had once once more pleaded for the release of the aid worker on Monday during a new meeting with his Iranian counterpart. The minister also pleaded for the improvement of the conditions of detention of Olivier Vandecasteele, he added. The transfer treaty having entered into force, Belgium submitted an official transfer request to the Iranian Republic on Tuesday, he said.
Olivier Vandecasteele was arrested on February 24 and sentenced following a show trial to 40 years in prison for espionage and 74 lashes, according to Iranian media. Belgium is trying to obtain his release by resorting to a transfer treaty which would allow the Belgian prisoner to be exchanged for Assadolah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced in 2021 to twenty years in prison for a planned terrorist attack. The Constitutional Court rejected appeals for the annulment of the treaty which entered into force on Tuesday. However, it attached a condition to its judgment: Belgium must inform the targets of the planned attack, namely the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), of the transfer to allow them to appeal.
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