The Belgian House of Representatives approved, on Wednesday evening, a treaty sponsoring the exchange of prisoners between Brussels and Tehran, which critics say opens the door to an “exchange” between a Belgian aid worker imprisoned in the Islamic Republic and an agent of the Iranian regime imprisoned in Belgium, according to AFP.
The deputies approved the text of the treaty by 79 votes to 41, with 11 abstentions.
On July 6, a parliamentary committee approved this treaty, which was concluded by the Iranian and Belgian governments in March.
Since its contents were revealed three weeks ago, this bilateral treaty has sparked heated debate in parliament, while expressing concerns similar to those expressed by exiled Iranian opponents.
These opponents believe that the treaty opens the door to the extradition of Tehran, after a possible amnesty, Assadollah Asadi, who was sentenced in 2021 in Belgium to 20 years in prison after being convicted of “terrorist assassination attempts.” A Belgian opposition lawmaker said the text was “detailed” on a lion’s scale.
The 50-year-old Iranian was convicted by an Antwerp court in northern Belgium of plotting a terrorist attack that was thwarted at the last minute on June 30, 2018, when Belgian police near Brussels arrested a Belgian couple of Iranian origin with explosives.
The couple were on their way to France, where it was planned to carry out an attack near Paris that day targeting the annual gathering of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which opposes the Iranian regime and includes in its ranks the opposition People’s Mujahideen Movement of Iran.
Judges in Antwerp held that Asadi planned the attack on behalf of Iranian intelligence under diplomatic cover.
When he was an employee at his country’s embassy in Vienna, he was arrested on July 1, 2018, in Germany, and handed over to Belgium after three months. The trial has angered Tehran, which continues to demand his “unconditional release.”
In Tehran, the authorities considered that Asadi’s diplomatic immunity had been violated.
“We demand the Belgian government to immediately release the Iranian diplomat (…) and to correct its behavior,” an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
In early July, the Belgian Minister of Justice, Vincent van Kekkenborn, had difficulty assuaging fears and separating this text from the Asadi case, when he presented the treaty to the deputies.
blackmail
The minister pointed out that Belgium’s “interests” in Iran and its two hundred nationals in this country have become potential targets for response measures since the arrest of the “alleged diplomat.”
“Since the first day, we have felt pressure from Iran, and the security situation has systematically deteriorated for our interests,” he stressed.
In evidence of the seriousness of these threats, on February 24, the Belgian Olivier Vandecastel, a humanitarian worker, was suspended without any reason in Tehran, justifying the Belgian executive’s view of the rapid ratification of the treaty signed on March 11 in Brussels.
On Tuesday, the Belgian Minister of Justice confirmed, after hours of debate in Parliament, that “Iran is a rogue state, but we cannot choose who to talk to.”
Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo had the same position, and he hardened his tone towards deputies who denounced “blackmail” by Iran over the detained 41-year-old Belgian.
“What can we say to his family? We’re going to let him languish in his cell? Belgium does not abandon its citizens,” de Croo said on July 14.
In a video message on July 11, Vandecastel’s family appealed to the authorities to “do everything possible” to release him, stressing his deteriorating health and psychological condition.