Vigil for Olivier Vandecasteele in 5 cities
Vandecasteele was arrested in his apartment on February 24 and was sentenced by the Iranian court to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for espionage, among other things.
The man has spent all this time in complete isolation, in a small bare cell with no outside air and no medical care. He went on a hunger strike for a while, but has since stopped. In the meantime, Vandecasteele has lost 25 kilos and his mental state has been severely affected.
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“Innocent Hostage in Filthy Blackmail”
“It has been a year now that he has been in jail for no valid reason,” said Laurent, Olivier Vandecasteele’s brother-in-law. “For 368 days he counts the minutes and days without seeing anyone. It took us a long time to understand that he was not an ordinary prisoner but an innocent hostage in a dirty blackmail. Belgium wanted to solve this in a legal way, through a treaty that was voted in parliament, but the Iranian opposition has been fighting in every possible way for six months.”
Until the Constitutional Court rules on that treaty on March 8, the Belgian government cannot do anything, according to the brother-in-law: “If there were other means to put pressure on Iran, the government would have used them long ago. It has now been five weeks since the family heard from him. The question is in what physical and mental state will we get him back, and if he will ever recover.”
Courage
The family urges the political and judicial authorities to show the necessary courage.
“Olivier, please take courage”, it still sounded. “We will get you released, with the support of your entire family, and the more than 315,000 people who have signed the petition for your release.”
Read all about Olivier Vandecasteele here