Belgium Swaps Iranian Terrorist (and Diplomat) to Iran for Belgian Humanitarian Worker

A few months ago, Belgium urged its citizens who were in Iran to leave the country since they were vulnerable to arbitrary arrest by the Iranian regime. This came after a Belgian humanitarian worker, Olivier Vandecasteele, was sentenced to 28 years in prison on obscure (and probably trump-up) charges. It was just the latest example of how the mullah-regime practices hostage diplomacy. The Islamic Republic of Iran was founded on hostage diplomacy when they held US diplomats hostage for over a year following the Iranian revolution.

Now Belgium has done what we all knew they would do. (I mean if Obama and Biden can do it, the Belgians can do it too.) So now, in exchange for an unjustly imprisoned humanitarian worker, the Belgians are sending a convicted terrorist back to Iran-no doubt to a hero's welcome. His name is Assadolah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat convicted in Belgium of helping plot an attack against an Iranian opposition organization near Paris in 2018. Imagine that-an Iranian diplomat.

It's called hostage diplomacy.

The below article from today's French-language Belgian daily, 7 sur 7, is translated by Fousesquawk.

https://www.7sur7.be/monde/une-journee-noire-pour-letat-de-droit-lopposition-iranienne-denonce-lechange-entre-assadi-et-vandecasteele~adfc13da/

"A black day for the rule of law": Iranian opposition denounces Assadi-Vandecasteele exchange

Caption: Rik Vanreusel (right) defends the Iranian opposition

Rik Vanreusel, the lawyer for the Iranian opposition, denounced the exchange of the Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi and Olivier Vandecasteele. " This is a victory for the cynical politics of power. The party can now begin in Iran," he charged on the airwaves of Radio 1 (VRT).

Editorial staff, May 26, 2023 at 19:06. Source: Radio 1

Even if the Belgian lawyer says he is happy that the humanitarian is on his way home to rejoin his family, he can only denounce the liberation of Assadolah Assadi, sentenced to 20 years in prison by Belgian justice for attempted murder and terrorism. "His dozens of victims also have rights," he said. Rik Vanreusel also claims that the government did not inform his clients of the exchange of prisoners.

"In Iran, the crowns of flowers are already prepared, the party can begin. It is a victory for the cynical politics of power, but for me, it is a somber day for the rule of law," he lamented.

To recall, Assadolah Assadi was arrested in Belgium for his role in the preparation of a terrorist attack against a meeting of the National Council of the Iranian Resistance (CNRI) in 2018 near Paris.