Belgian court suspends prisoner swap deal with Iran
BRUSSELS (AA) – Belgium’s Constitutional Court suspended an agreement Thursday on the extradition of an Iranian diplomat who was jailed on terrorism charges.
An appeal against the law allowing the extradition of Assadolah Assadi was filed earlier this year at the Belgian Constitutional Court and a first instance court had approved the prisoner exchange, local media reported on Oct. 4.
Assadi was sentenced last year by a Belgian court to 20 years in prison for planning a bomb attack at an opposition rally outside Paris in 2018.
According to Belgian daily Het Nieuwsblad, a Brussels court prepared the legal grounds for extraditing Assadi to Iran based on a controversial deal between Brussels and Tehran allowing a prisoner exchange.
The treaty, which was ratified by Belgian lawmakers in June, would enable the return of Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, who has been held in Iran since February.
According to critics, the deal would raise concerns if Assadi continued to serve his prison sentence in his home country and might serve as a further ground for Iran to take hostages.
Assadi said he had been blackmailed by Iran to take part in the terrorist attack.
Iran denied the allegations, accusing an exiled group of preparing a false plot to harm Tehran’s reputation.
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