Once ratified by both parties, it would open the door to an exchange of prisoners, on the one hand the Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi, sentenced in 2021 in Belgium to 20 years in prison for a planned attack in France, and on the The other, Olivier Vandecasteele, humanitarian worker arrested in February in Iran for a spurious motive, according to the Belgian authorities, and imprisoned in very difficult conditions.
In the Chamber, in opposition, Les Engagés, Défi, N-VA and Vlaams Belang voted against (the PTB abstained). They had called for the text to be rejected, because its approval would mean, according to them, that Belgium gave in to blackmail from Iran, a follower of “hostage diplomacy”, and would offer refuge in Europe to Iranian agents. The text also aroused unease in the majority. Denis Ducarme (MR) did not participate in the vote, which he described as contrary to his conscience.
The anger of the Iranian opposition
The Iranian resistance, which had been demonstrating for weeks in Brussels against this treaty, condemns the approval of “the shameful agreement with the mullahs’ regime”. She sees it as an incentive for the power in place to intensify terrorism and use hostage-taking to free its arrested agents. The Iranian resistance will continue to examine all political and legal avenues to prevent the extradition of a terrorist diplomat to Iran.