He has been incarcerated for almost 11 months.

In Brussels, several hundred demonstrators gathered on Sunday January 22 to demand the release of Olivier Vandecasteele, a humanitarian worker imprisoned in Iran. 

The crowd, who braved freezing cold in central Brussels, chanted "Free Olivier" and sang happy birthday to Olivier Vandecasteele who just turned 42 this week. 

"The goal is to show the government that we cannot leave an innocent person" in prison in Iran, said the Belgian prisoner's sister Nathalie.

“An innocent citizen must be able to be taken out very quickly from where he is,” she added. 

"Every minute, every second counts," said Olivier Van Steirtegem, spokesperson for the family.

The family hopes that the growing pressure of public opinion will encourage the Belgian authorities to find a solution more quickly. 

>> To read also: For the families of the seven French detainees in Iran, helplessness and anguish

Sentenced to 40 years in prison for “espionage” 

Detained in Tehran since February 24, 2022, he was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison in Iran for "espionage", and is expected to serve 12.5 years according to Tehran.

He was also sentenced to 74 lashes. 

Since his arrest, he has been held in conditions which the Belgian government has described as "inhuman".

Independent UN human rights experts have called his detention a "flagrant violation of international law". 

Olivier Vandecasteele's supporters believe that he is being held due to diplomatic blackmail exercised by Iran, which is trying to obtain from Belgium the release of an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, sentenced in Belgium in 2021 at 20 years in prison for a planned "terrorist" attack against the Iranian opposition. 

Assadollah Assadi, a diplomat stationed in Austria, was found guilty of planning an attack against the Iranian opposition in exile in the Paris region in 2018. He was identified as the one who supplied the explosives for the bomb. 

In July 2022, Belgium and Iran had signed a treaty for the transfer of convicts between the two countries, which had been considered by Brussels as a means that could allow the return of Olivier Vandecasteele. 

But the Belgian Constitutional Court, seized by Iranian opponents in exile, suspended the treaty.

The applicants criticize this treaty for allowing the release of Assadollah Assadi.

The suspension is in effect pending a judgment on the legality of the treaty. 

The French-speaking press and more than 50 personalities unite to demand the release of Olivier Vandecasteele https://t.co/8HpiFvGgTp pic.twitter.com/jB9REJIKJv

– The Evening (@lesoir) January 20, 2023

The Belgian government has assured that it is doing everything possible to secure the release of the aid worker.

Friday, was published in the French-speaking press an appeal of about fifty Belgian personalities of the sporting, university, literary, artistic, political and humanitarian world for his release. 

With AFP 

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