Iran
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani speaking to reporters in Tehran on February 6, 2023. Photo: IRNA
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Monday said it is ready to exercise an agreement on a prisoner swap exchange with Belgium three days after the Belgian Constitutional Court authorized such a swap to take place.
“We can say that now the way to implement the agreement has been opened, and the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes this development,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said during his weekly press briefing.
A prisoner swap between Tehran and Brussels would see Belgian national Olivier Vandecasteele, jailed for 40 years by the Islamic republic for spying and cooperation with the US, swapped with Iranian national Assadollah Assadi, who was charged with plotting to bomb a gathering of Iranian exiles in Paris in 2018.
On Friday, the Belgian Constitutional Court gave the green light for a prisoner swap exchange to take place with Iran after it rejected a challenge which sought to nullify the treaty.
Kanaani praised the decision by Brussels to reject the legal challenge, saying that the decision “can be said to have opened the way for the implementation of the agreement.”
Vandecasteele, 43, was detained in February 2022 when he visited Tehran and was charged with spying, money laundering, and cooperation with the US against Iran. Belgium and his family denied the charges brought against him.
On four separate charges, he was sentenced to 40 years in jail and 74 lashes.
Assadi, 50, is an Iranian diplomat widely believed to be the mastermind behind the thwarted attack on an anti-Iranian regime rally in Paris in 2018. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison two years ago, and Iran has strongly condemned the verdict.
Iran had warned even before the conviction that it would not recognise the trial or the verdict, denying any official role in the plot and insisting Assadi ought to have enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
“We can say that now the way to implement the agreement has been opened, and the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes this development,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said during his weekly press briefing.
A prisoner swap between Tehran and Brussels would see Belgian national Olivier Vandecasteele, jailed for 40 years by the Islamic republic for spying and cooperation with the US, swapped with Iranian national Assadollah Assadi, who was charged with plotting to bomb a gathering of Iranian exiles in Paris in 2018.
On Friday, the Belgian Constitutional Court gave the green light for a prisoner swap exchange to take place with Iran after it rejected a challenge which sought to nullify the treaty.
Kanaani praised the decision by Brussels to reject the legal challenge, saying that the decision “can be said to have opened the way for the implementation of the agreement.”
Vandecasteele, 43, was detained in February 2022 when he visited Tehran and was charged with spying, money laundering, and cooperation with the US against Iran. Belgium and his family denied the charges brought against him.
On four separate charges, he was sentenced to 40 years in jail and 74 lashes.
Assadi, 50, is an Iranian diplomat widely believed to be the mastermind behind the thwarted attack on an anti-Iranian regime rally in Paris in 2018. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison two years ago, and Iran has strongly condemned the verdict.
Iran had warned even before the conviction that it would not recognise the trial or the verdict, denying any official role in the plot and insisting Assadi ought to have enjoyed immunity from prosecution.
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