March 17, 2023
Belgium’s Constitutional Court has declined to annul the country’s prisoner swap agreement with Iran-but it has ruled that, before Belgium can send any Iranian prisoner to Iran, it must allow that prisoner’s victims the right to contest the release in court.
In 2021, a Belgian court found Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi guilty of terrorism for organizing a bombing of the annual Mojahedin-e Khalq rally near Paris. Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In 2022, Belgium and Iran signed a prisoner swap treaty under which any native of one country convicted in the other country could be sent home to serve his time or be immediately released.
In between, Iran arrested and jailed Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgium national, in what was widely assumed to be a set-up to arrange an exchange of prisoners. Aid worker Vandecasteele was arrested on a visit to Iran in February 2022 and sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges that included spying.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq went to Belgium’s Constitutional Court, arguing that the prisoner swap treaty be annulled because it was simply a cover for freeing Assadi so he would not serve his time for terrorism. Vande-casteele’s family went to court arguing against the Mojahedin-e Khalq.
The Constitutional Court refused to annual the agreement March 3. But that did not end the issue because the court ruled that any victim of a prisoner about to be sent to his home country has a right to contest that plan in court.
The Constitutional Court said the European Convention on Human Rights decrees that the victims of a convicted person about to be sent home “must benefit from an effective remedy.” In other words, the victims have a right to see that the culprit is appropriately punished.
Therefore, before any prisoner can be sent back to Iran under the treaty, the victims-in this case, the Mojahedin-e Khalq-must be allowed to go into court and contest the transfer on the argument that the prisoner’s return would nullify the victim’s right to see the culprit appropriately punished.
The Mojahedin-e Khalq is almost certain to go into court the moment the Belgian government proposes to send Assadi back to Iran. The Iranian media broadly reported the court’s refusal to annul the treaty, but also broadly neglected to report that the court gave victims the right to contest any transfer.