The “hostage diplomacy” of the Islamic Republic has been rewarded again. Belgium released, Thursday, May 25, the Iranian diplomat and spy Assadollah Assadi, who was welcomed as a hero, this Friday, in Tehran. Third counselor of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Austria, this 50-year-old civil servant, imprisoned in Belgium since October 2018, had however been sentenced in 2021 by an Antwerp court to twenty years in prison for “attempts to “terrorist assassination” against a gathering of Iranian opponents in 2018 in Villepinte, in the Paris region.
Recognized by Belgian justice as an Iranian intelligence agent acting under diplomatic cover, Assadollah Assadi has always benefited from the support of the Iranian authorities, who have constantly maintained that his immunity due to his status as a diplomat had been flouted. From then on, they swore to each other to do everything possible to bring him back to the country.
FIRST IMAGES of Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat and intelligence agent convicted in Belgium of terrorism, upon his arrival in
That same Thursday, May 25, the Islamic Republic released Belgian citizen Olivier Vandecasteele. Arrested in February 2022 in Tehran, this recognized Belgian humanitarian worker was sentenced last January to forty years in prison and seventy-four lashes for “espionage”, which Belgium has always denied. On the contrary, this 42-year-old man has always been considered, in Brussels, as a bargaining chip in the hands of the Iranians to free their agent.
While the release of the two prisoners was celebrated with great fanfare by their respective countries on Friday, none mentioned a connection between the two cases. This step was, however, cheerfully taken by the Sultanate of Oman, which did not hesitate to speak of an “exchange” of detainees. And for good reason, it is this small country on the Arabian Peninsula which served as final mediator and welcomed the two prisoners on its soil on Thursday, before transferring them, this Friday, to their capital of origin.
However, the case had been heard for a long time. It was made possible by the signing, in March 2022, between Brussels and Tehran, of a treaty for the mutual transfer of convicts, which entered into force on April 18 despite the opposition of the People’s Mujahideen, the controversial group of opponents Iranians targeted by the attempted attack in June 2018. However, the Constitutional Court had imposed on the Belgian authorities to inform the civil parties of the release of Assadollah Assadi in order to allow them to file an appeal, which does not seem to have been the case.
“The freedom of the terrorist, who organized and ordered the greatest criminal act in Europe after the Second World War, is a shameful ransom for terrorism and the taking of hostages, in flagrant violation of the court order,” said responded, in a statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political showcase of the Iranian People’s Mojahedin Organization.
Finally free. Finally avec nous. pic.twitter.com/XrZzv96nin
Beyond the case of the Belgian humanitarian Olivier Vandecasteele, the name of the Iranian diplomat-spy Assadollah Assadi came up frequently in the file of French hostages held in Iran. It is therefore no coincidence that two of them, Benjamin Brière and Bernard Phelan, were released two weeks ago by the Islamic Republic. The outcome of the Assadi affair could also facilitate the release of the last four tricolor hostages still held by Iran. But it will only reinforce Tehran in its practices worthy of another time.
