2023-05-27 09:13:00
The family and relatives of Olivier Vandecasteele found a physically weakened man on Friday evening but who had lost neither his humor nor his enthusiasm, his relatives explained on Saturday during a press conference in Brussels. “Intellectually, he was fine. We found the Olivier of yesteryear, with his warmth, his humor even. But he lost a lot of weight (…) He was very enthusiastic even if he is a marked man, who suffered”explained one of his friends and spokesperson for the support committee, Olivier Van Steirtegem.
Arriving in Melsbroek, the ex-detainee was welcomed by a ministerial delegation. The media were present in large numbers. If he had no doubts regarding the mobilization in his favor, the magnitude surprised him. Friday morning, Olivier Vandecasteele was taken out of his cell in Iran and ordered to take his belongings. His guards blindfolded him before taking him to an airport. At that moment, he thought he was going to be transferred to another prison, as had already been the case during his detention. It was only when he flew to Muscat, capital of Oman where a Belgian team had been dispatched, that he understood that he would be released.
“Olivier is a strong man”
The humanitarian worker was detained for a long time in inhuman conditions that amounted to torture: isolation, permanent light, lack of any comfort, etc. The first few months were the hardest, according to those close to him, as he also had to undergo interrogation by the Iranian authorities.
Active for several years in Afghanistan and then in Iran, “Olivier is a strong man”, assured Mr. Van Steirtegem who recalled his knowledge of the country where he had lived for six years and of its practices, such as that of hostage diplomacy. “He did not doubt but the time must have seemed long to him”.
In prison, “rituals to populate one’s loneliness” allowed him to hold on. A fan of running, he thus paced diagonally the yard of 3 meters by 5 to which he had access three times a week to reach 25 kilometers.
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