Family of Belgian Aid Worker Detained in Iran Calls on Brussels to Secure Their Son’s Release

The family of Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian aid worker detained in Iran for the past five months, called on Brussels on Monday, July 20, to take every necessary step for their son’s release.

Annie Vandecasteele, Olivier’s mother, said that the Belgian government has a duty to take every necessary step to free its citizen.

Ms. Vandecasteele, in a video in which she struggled to hold back tears, said that since her son completed his university education, he has been away from his family providing humanitarian aid to people around the world, and now Belgian authorities are obliged to rescue him from an Iranian prison.

Annie Vandecasteele added that she is waiting for the day she can hold her son in her arms again.

Olivier Vandecasteele, 41, who spent the past five years managing the Iran section for international humanitarian organizations and had provided assistance to Iranians and Islamic Republic institutions in the wake of disasters such as earthquakes and floods, has been in detention since last February.

According to Belgian media reports, the Islamic Republic of Iran has held this Belgian citizen in the notorious Evin prison on charges of “espionage.”

Some members of the Belgian Parliament have emphasized that the detention of Mr. Vandecasteele is in fact a kidnapping by the Islamic Republic of Iran to coerce Belgium into releasing Assadollah Assadi, a jailed diplomat of the Islamic Republic of Iran from this European country’s prison.

A Belgian court sentenced Mr. Assadi, who was then third secretary of Iran’s embassy in Austria, to 20 years in prison for attempting to bomb a gathering of the Organization of Mujahedin of Iran in Paris four years ago.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the then Prime Minister of Israel, said that Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, discovered Iran’s plot to carry out bombings in Europe and quickly informed the authorities of France, Belgium, Austria, and Germany.

The Belgian government has currently asked the Brussels Parliament to “urgently” approve a treaty in its plenary session which, according to some Brussels media outlets, may pave the way for Olivier Vandecasteele’s return in a possible deal in exchange for Assadollah Assadi. A vote on this bill is scheduled for July 25 in the Belgian Parliament.

The Belgian Parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee approved this bill last week, despite facing a wave of public opposition, protest letters from a number of U.S. Congress representatives, and protests from international human rights organizations.

Natalie Vandecasteele, Olivier’s sister, in a video released by the family on July 20, alongside her mother, said that Olivier, while innocent, has been held in solitary confinement for the past five months and his spirit is broken.

Addressing Belgian authorities, she said that Olivier now needs the support of his own country’s government and the Vandecasteele family cannot imagine that Brussels would turn its back on taking the necessary steps to free this citizen.

Olivier’s sister said that the Belgian consul in Tehran has been able to visit Olivier in Evin twice, and this diplomat informed the family that Olivier has severely lost weight and his leg has become infected.

International organizations and human rights advocates emphasize that the Islamic Republic of Iran uses innocent people as hostages and exchanges them with its own prisoners.

Source: Radio Farda