After submitting a request through the Belgian ambassador to Iran, Olivier Vandecasteele’s family received a phone call from an Iranian official on Saturday, December 24. Olivier then appeared emaciated and suffering from a serious foot infection. Despite the freezing temperatures currently in Iran, he wore only a simple t-shirt, for lack of having received warmer clothes. At the end of November, his family announced that the detainee had started a hunger strike.
The conversation was to take place in English and they were strictly forbidden to discuss the trial in Iran and the decision of the Belgian Constitutional Court. Olivier Vandecasteele was nevertheless able to describe to his family the conditions in which he was escorted to court, arms and legs chained. Sentenced to 28 years in prison, he speaks of a “show trial”.
The prison guards tried to convince him that no one in Belgium cared about his fate for ten months. His family managed to prove him wrong. On December 25, Olivier Vandecasteele’s relatives and supporters gathered in Brussels to demand his release.
Mr. Vandecasteele has been detained in Iran since February 24 for reasons still unknown. The man could serve as a bargaining chip with Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat sentenced in Belgium to twenty years in prison for terrorism and who has already served five years. The transfer will not take place at the moment due to a suspension of the agreement with Iran by the Constitutional Court in early December. The Court will rule on the merits in February.
The family and friends of the Belgian hostage are now doing everything possible to prevent the cancellation of the agreement. The government also indicated that it was preparing the rest of the procedure before the High Court. “It’s the only lead,” said Olivier Van Streitegem, spokesman for the family. “In our judicial system, Assadi can be released at a third of his sentence, that is to say in two years. Moreover, he has not caused any victims, the only victim here is Olivier”, he continued.