Olivier Vandecasteele
Olivier Vandecasteele is a Belgian humanitarian worker who was arrested in Iran in 2022 and sentenced to 40 years of prison in 2023.
Career
Since at least 2006, Vandecasteele has worked for international humanitarian organisations, including Médecins du Monde, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Relief International. He has worked in India, Afghanistan, and Mali. In 2015, he became the director of NRC's Iran operations, and assumed the same role in Iran for Relief International in 2020. In that position, he distributed humanitarian aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. Vandecasteele worked for Relief International until July 2021.[1]
Detention in Iran
Vandecasteele was detained in Iran on February 24, 2022.[1][2] On July 5, 2022, Belgium's justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne claimed that Vandecasteele was being held on fabricated "espionage" charges.[2]
In December 2022, the Belgian government stated that Iran had sentenced him to 28 years in prison,[3] although in January 2023, the BBC reported that he had been sentenced to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for spying, money laundering and currency smuggling.[4] Vandecasteele denied the charges against him.[4]
On May 26th, 2023 it was announced that Olivier Vandecasteele had been freed following a prisoner swap for Asadollah Asadi, an Iranian diplomat convicted of plotting a bomb attack against a National Council of Resistance of Iran rally in Paris.[5]
See also
References
- ^ a b "Exclusive: Iran Holding Belgian Man As Brussels Mulls Prisoner Exchange". Iran International. 4 July 2022.
- ^ a b "Belgian Held In Iran For 'Espionage'". AFP. 5 July 2022.
- ^ "Olivier Vandecasteele: Iran jails Belgian aid worker for 28 years - family". BBC. 14 December 2022.
- ^ a b "Olivier Vandecasteele: Belgian aid worker sentenced to 40 years in Iran". BBC News. 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
- ^ "Olivier Vandecasteele est libre : un échange avec le diplomate iranien Assadi a été effectué à Oman". La Libre.