International human rights experts call for Assad not to be released in Belgium
Dozens of prominent Belgian and international experts in the fields of human rights, criminal justice, and international law sent an open letter to Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croix, urging his government not to release Assadollah Assadi, emphasizing that the Belgian government "will bear a heavy responsibility in this regard."
The open letter, sent on Wednesday, September 6, was signed by 68 expert officials, including current and former judges of the European Union, as well as several international human rights organizations.
Asadollah Asadi, an Islamic Republic diplomat imprisoned in Belgium on terrorism charges, is accused of providing an Iranian couple living in Belgium with a half-kilogram explosive device to target a conference of the People's Mojahedin Organization (MEK) in the suburbs of Paris.
In the letter from the aforementioned officials, the Belgian government was warned that the release of Asadollah Asadi "only fuels the climate of impunity that exists for Iranian officials."
The open letter states: “Allowing Asadi to serve the remainder of his 20-year sentence in Iran, the country responsible for the terrorist bombing, makes a mockery of the rule of law and provides further impunity for the Iranian government and its officials involved in terrorism and crimes against humanity.”
The text of the letter and its accompanying statement states that "Asadi's transfer to Iran would effectively exempt him from serving his sentence, set a dangerous precedent, and seriously undermine the rule of law in Europe."
The text adds that "this encourages the spread of Iranian terrorism on European Union soil and gives Iranian officials the assurance that they can escape responsibility for major international crimes. Belgium will bear a heavy responsibility in this regard."
The signatories to the open letter come from 25 countries, including 17 European countries, and include 18 former senior UN officials, including the former Chair of the UN International Law Commission, and four former UN special rapporteurs.
Regarding the Asadollah Asadi case, Belgium and Iran recently signed a treaty for the transfer of convicts between the two countries, which made a lot of news, and its review in the Belgian Parliament was met with strong protests, but in the end, the Belgian Parliament approved it.
According to media reports, Belgium hopes that in exchange for the release of Asadollah Asadi, it will be able to release Olivier Vandecastelle, a 41-year-old Belgian citizen, and possibly Ahmadreza Jalali, an Iranian-Swedish physician and researcher who has been sentenced to death in Iran on charges of espionage, from Iranian prisons.
Opponents of Mr. Asadi's transfer to Iran have filed a case in a Belgian court, during which the court extended the ban on Asadollah Asadi's transfer to Iran and any other third country for another two months and set September 19 to hear the parties' arguments.
Meanwhile, on August 22, Belgian media reported the possibility of American intervention in the prisoner exchange program between Iran and Belgium, writing that the United States might request the extradition of Assadollah Assadi to the United States.
Source: Radio Farda
