{"id":109106,"date":"2023-03-04T08:43:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-04T13:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=109106"},"modified":"2023-03-04T08:43:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-04T13:43:40","slug":"top-belgian-court-upholds-prisoner-exchange-treaty-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2023\/03\/04\/top-belgian-court-upholds-prisoner-exchange-treaty-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Belgian Court Upholds Prisoner Exchange Treaty with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM \u2014 <\/span>Belgium’s Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to the swap of a convicted Iranian diplomat for a jailed Belgian aid worker.<\/p>\n

Belgian lawmakers cleared the treaty in July, but it has been held up by legal challenges from an exiled Iranian opposition group.<\/p>\n

“The court rejects the action for annulment,” the Constitutional Court said in a press release.<\/p>\n

However, the judges also specified that the victims of any detainee being proposed for transfer must have the right to contest the specific case in court.<\/p>\n

“Thus, when the government takes a decision to transfer, it must inform the victims of the relevant convicted person in such a way that they can effectively seek a review of the legality [of the transfer],” it said.<\/p>\n

Aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, arrested while on a visit to Iran in February 2022, was sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying. Brussels has said the charges are fake.<\/p>\n

His distraught family has appealed to the government to do its utmost to get him released.<\/p>\n

Following Friday’s judgment, campaigners for Vandecasteele’s release tweeted there was “still a [long] way to see Olivier free but tonight there might finally be a light at the end of the tunnel!”<\/p>\n

Convicted in bomb plot<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran has called for the release of Assadollah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2021 over a foiled 2018 bomb plot. His was the first trial of an Iranian official for suspected terrorism in Europe since Iran’s 1979 revolution.<\/p>\n

The exiled National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), whose rally near Paris had been the bomb plot’s target, has insisted that Assadi remain in jail.<\/p>\n

The NCRI said it would make use of the Constitutional Court’s stipulation that any proposed transfer must be open to legal challenge.<\/p>\n

“While the court did not annul the transfer agreement between Belgium and Iran, it has provided the plaintiffs with the opportunity to seek legal redress,” Shahin Gobadi, a member of the group’s foreign affairs committee, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“The National Council of Resistance and the plaintiffs are exercising this right to prevent the release of this terrorist.”<\/p>\n

Iran has called the Paris attack allegations a “false flag” stunt by the NCRI, which it in turn considers a terrorist group.<\/p>\n

Some Belgian lawmakers have voiced concern that the treaty might lead to “hostage diplomacy” and put other Belgians at risk of detention.<\/p>\n

It is not clear when a prisoner exchange might happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM \u2014 Belgium’s Constitutional Court on Friday upheld a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to the swap of a convicted Iranian diplomat for a jailed Belgian aid worker. Belgian lawmakers cleared the treaty in July, but it has been held up by legal challenges from an exiled Iranian opposition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109106"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109109,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109106\/revisions\/109109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}