PARIS — Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said on Thursday that his government is currently looking into Tehran's request to return imprisoned Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi in exchange for jailed Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele.
Speaking in front of the Belgian parliament, De Croo confirmed that Brussels had received such a request from Tehran last week, a few days after his own government asked for the return of Vandecasteele to Belgium. Yet De Croo warned that an exchange could still take time and was not at all imminent, despite claims by Iranian authorities.
The Belgian premier denied Iranian media reports on Vandecasteele's condition that claimed he was held in a suite and received three hot meals a day. Vandecasteele was sentenced last year by a court in Tehran to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for espionage. Brussels has decried the charges as baseless. De Croo asserted on Thursday that Vandecasteele was eating and sleeping on the floor, receiving no medical care and being constantly manipulated, noting that "his conditions of detention amount to torture."
According to De Croo, Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has held several talks with her Iranian counterpart in recent days, and he himself had spoken on the phone with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on April 21 in an effort to free the Belgian aid worker. "Iran is trying to divide us. Let's not let them. … We are all trying to save the life of an innocent Belgian," De Croo told parliament, reiterating his warning to all Belgian citizens not to travel to Iran at this time.
