2023-05-31 04:22:00
”Why did the federal government not use Article 167 of the Constitution sooner to extradite Olivier Vandecasteele since it knew that the transfer treaty was not going to succeed? What agreements has Belgium made with the Sultanate of Oman?
Here are some of the questions that have preoccupied the opposition – the N-VA in the lead – since the release of the humanitarian worker from Tournai. The fact that the De Croo government resorted to Article 167 is seen as an almost authoritarian manoeuvre. This article specifies that “the King directs international relations, without prejudice to the competence of the Communities and Regions to regulate international cooperation”. It gives the federal executive power the power to direct international relations and allows it to no longer bother with the legal issues arising from the transfer treaty.
Release of Olivier Vandecasteele: large gray areas persist following the return of the Belgian humanitarian
Michael Freilich, for example, wonders regarding the urgency that convinced the Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne to step over the legal hurdles. “According to Vincent Van Quickenborne, Vandecasteele’s life was at stake, because Iran had just executed two citizens of the European Union”, tweeted Federal MP N-VA. “However, they were men with dual Iranian-European nationality. They would never have dared to execute an EU citizen (and no death sentence had yet been handed down).”
The decision taken by the federal government to exchange Olivier Vandecasteele for the diplomat Assadolah Assadi accused of terrorist intentions also went down badly with the Iranian opposition. Twenty demonstrators gathered in Brussels. Their banners carried messages claiming that signing the agreement with the mullahs’ regime was “bending before religious fascism and a regime of terror and massacre”.
Asked regarding the show We need to talk of LN24 on the Assadi case, the federal deputy Denis Ducarme (MR) declared that it would be necessary to think to the legal provisions so that the Iranian terrorist “is prohibited from entering European territory” or “that he appears on the list of those who would be prohibited from entering Belgian territory”.
For a question of agenda, the opposition will not have the possibility of questioning the government in Parliament. Currently, most of the members of the External Relations Committee, including the chairwoman of the committee, are abroad. The opposition will have to settle for topical questions at the start of the plenary session on Thursday.
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