Since the arrest of Belgian NGO employee Olivier Vandecasteele (41) in Iran, the Iranian ambassador to our country has been called to account five times. “That is unprecedented,” said Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib (MR).
On Tuesday afternoon, the House has been debating the draft law that Belgium and Iran will extradite prisoners to each other for more than four hours. That draft is controversial, because it could pave the way for the release of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian mock diplomat who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in our country last year for his involvement in a thwarted bomb attack in Paris. In Tehran, Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian NGO employee, has been detained since February.
According to Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, the Iranian ambassador to our country has been summoned five times since that arrest in our country, and that is “unseen”. Belgium has repeatedly advocated the release of Vandecasteele, as well as better detention conditions and consular visits.
The Iranian-Swedish VUB professor Ahmad Djalali does not fall under the strict application of the treaty that our country has concluded with Iran, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open Vld) stated earlier in the House. After all, he does not have Belgian nationality. “But that does not prevent our country from continuing its efforts to get Djalali free.”
Lahbib also emphasized that Belgium cannot put pressure on Iran by boycotting trade, for example. Trade relations with the country are at a very low ebb, she said. “That would be a bit like screaming in the desert.”
“rogue state”
Like her colleague from Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne, the MR minister emphasized that there have been no contacts with Iran about the exchange of individual prisoners. “The treaty can be a means to help all sentenced Belgians,” she said. According to Van Quickenborne, “there are no discussions about a possible transfer” and “there are no automatisms” contained in the treaty.
The Open VLD deputy prime minister called Iran a “rogue state”. “But France has an extradition treaty with Iran, and we have such a treaty with other regimes that don’t take human rights seriously like Russia or China. Just because you’re speaking to a rogue state doesn’t mean you should be silent about the fact that it’s a rogue state.”
Moreover, according to Van Quickenborne, the Belgian government works transparently by conducting the debate in parliament. “Other countries choose to make clandestine agreements, and it would of course be more comfortable to do it all in backrooms. But we are on the path of the rule of law and transparency, and we will continue to walk that path with great conviction.”
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Parliamentary committee gives green light to controversial prisoner deal with Iran: “It may start something for Djalali”, hopes his colleague
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