Belgian authorities should “do everything” they possibly can to end the “serious violations of fundamental rights” aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele has been subjected to in Iran, some 60 academics and legal experts wrote in an open letter.
Earlier this month, Vandecasteele – the Belgian aid worker detained in Iran for almost a year – was sentenced to 74 lashes and 40 years in prison for espionage and undermining national security.
Following a protest in Brussels on Sunday that aimed to draw attention to Vandecasteele’s plight, some 60 academics and lawyers addressed Belgian authorities in an open letter.
“Olivier Vandecasteele’s life is in immediate danger: it is feared that he will not be able to survive the harsh conditions in which he is being held for much longer. His right to life, guaranteed by article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights and by article 6 of the 1966 Covenant, is thus breached,” the letter reads.
The aid worker is currently detained in a basement cell with no natural light or fresh air does not eat well and suffers from several untreated health problems.
“These detention conditions are deemed inhuman and degrading treatment, prohibited by article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and article 7 of the 1966 Covenant,” the letter adds.
Last year, Belgium negotiated a prisoner swap with Iran, which would have allowed for the exchange of Vandecasteele for Assadolah Assadi – an Iranian diplomat convicted in Belgium for a failed bomb attack on the Iranian opposition in France.
However, the Belgian Constitutional Court decided to suspend the agreement last month as Assadi could have escaped his sentence and been released in Iran. On 8 March, the court is set to determine whether or not the treaty should be abandoned.
Francoise Tulkens, the former vice-president of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and one of the letter’s signatories, also expressed her concerns about Iran’s treatment of Vandecasteele in an interview with RTBF Tuesday.
“We have a Belgian citizen imprisoned for arbitrary reasons in Iran in conditions that are beyond words,” she said.
On 19 January, the European Parliament voted on a motion for a resolution on the EU response to the protests and executions in Iran.
It “strongly condemns” Vandecasteele’s sentence it says is based on “fabricated espionage charges” and the “cynical use of hostage diplomacy to force the release of convicted terrorist Asadollah Asadi”.
In Belgium, the Chamber of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution asking the government “to use all diplomatic means” to demand Iran immediately release the aid worker and to bring the matter up for discussion at the Council of the EU – something Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib said she would do on Monday.
The prisoner swap treaty was concluded to avoid the risk that more Belgians would be taken hostage in Iran, according to an explanation given by the country’s security services, centre-right politician Michel De Maegd told RTL on Sunday.
In December, the country’s foreign ministry already called on Belgian nationals in Iran to leave as soon as possible due to the “increased risk of arbitrary detention in the current deteriorating security situation throughout Iran”.
(Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
