Iran sentences Belgian aid worker to prison, lashes

Iran has sentenced a Belgian aid worker to a lengthy prison
term and 74 lashes after convicting him of espionage in a closed-door trial,
state media reported Tuesday.
The website of Iran’s judiciary said a Revolutionary Court
sentenced 41-year-old Olivier Vandecasteele to 12.5 years in prison for
espionage, 12.5 years for collaboration with hostile governments and 12.5 years
for money laundering. He was also fined $1 million and sentenced to 2.5 years
for currency smuggling.
Under Iranian law, Vandecasteele would be eligible for
release after 12.5 years. The judiciary website said the verdicts can be
appealed.
Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals
over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and
sentencing them after secretive trials in which rights groups say they are
denied due process.
Critics accuse Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining
chips with the West, something Iranian officials deny. Vandecasteele’s
conviction comes after an Iranian diplomat in Belgium received a 20-year prison
sentence in 2021 over masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled
Iranian opposition group in France.
Iran has not released any details about the charges against
Vandecasteele. It is unclear if they are related to anti-government protests
that have convulsed Iran for months or a long-running shadow war with Israel
and the U.S. marked by covert attacks on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.
The nationwide protests began after the death in police
custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating
Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. Rallying under the slogan “Women, life,
freedom,” the protesters say they are fed up with decades of social and
political repression. Iran has blamed the protests on foreign powers, without
providing evidence.
Vandecasteele’s family said last month that he has been
detained in an Iranian prison for months and has been on a hunger strike. They
said he was deprived of access to a lawyer of his choice and is suffering from
serious health problems.
Belgium has urged its nationals to leave Iran, warning that
they face the risk of arbitrary arrest or unfair trial.
“Iran has provided no official information regarding the
charges against Olivier Vandecasteele or his trial,” Belgium’s Foreign Minister
Hadja Lahbib said in a statement. “We will summon the Iranian ambassador today,
given the information that is circulating in the press.”
“Belgium continues to condemn this arbitrary detention and
is doing everything possible to put an end to it and to improve the conditions
of his detention,” she said.
The anti-government protests, which have continued for
nearly four months with no sign of ending, are one of the biggest challenges to
the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power.
At least 520 protesters have been killed and more than
19,300 people have been arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran,
a group that has been monitoring the unrest. Iranian authorities have not
provided official figures on deaths or arrests.
Iran has executed four people after convicting them of
charges linked to the protests, including attacks on security forces. They were
convicted in Revolutionary Courts, which do not allow those on trial to pick
their own lawyers or see the evidence against them.
London-based Amnesty International has said such trials bear
“no resemblance to a meaningful judicial proceeding.”
Norway and Denmark summoned Iranian ambassadors this week to
protest the executions and Iran’s handling of the demonstrations.
“What is happening in Iran is completely unacceptable and
must stop,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said. “We have strongly
condemned the executions. ... We have called on Iran to end the use of the
death penalty and to respect human rights.”
In Denmark, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the
executions “completely unacceptable” and said the European Union should impose
additional sanctions on Iran.
Separately on Tuesday, the state-run IRNA news agency said
Iran’s intelligence ministry arrested six teams of operatives linked to Mossad,
Israel’s chief intelligence and secret-service agency.
Without providing evidence, the report said the spy teams
planned to assassinate an unnamed high-ranking military official and had
carried out several sabotage operations in the country’s big cities.
The report also said security
forces identified 23 alleged members of these teams and had arrested 13 of them
who were in the country.