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BRUSSELS: Belgium on Tuesday said it had formally asked Iran to repatriate jailed aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele from Tehran, after a disputed prisoner exchange treaty entered into force.
Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said she had informed her Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian of the “transfer request for our compatriot Olivier Vandecasteele.”
“I denounced his conditions of detention and requested a visit by our ambassador in Iran,” she wrote in a social media post.
Iran arrested Vandecasteele, 42, in February 2022 and sentenced him to 40 years for spying, in a move condemned as “hostage diplomacy” by his backers.
Brussels is eyeing a swap for Iranian official Assadollah Assadi, jailed in Belgium after he was convicted of masterminding a plot to blow up a 2018 Iranian opposition event outside Paris.
But a potential exchange was held up for months after a legal challenge by an Iranian opposition group to a prisoner exchange treaty with Tehran.
The complaint was dismissed by Belgium’s Constitutional Court last month, fueling hopes that Vandecasteele could be returned home.
The treaty formally entered into force on Tuesday.
The family of Vandecasteele, who worked for aid organizations in Iran for six years, said he was transferred to Tehran’s Evin prison 10 days ago and was being held in solitary confinement.
They said he complained in a brief phone call that “he could no longer sleep and could barely stand up straight because of excruciating muscle and nerve pain.”
“He is not being treated for this. His detention conditions have not changed and he is not given enough food to preserve his health,” the family said.
“Olivier is totally worn out. He cannot remain the pawn of talks between two countries. His life is at stake,” they said.