Belgian aid worker freed

Belgium and Iran have exchanged prisoners in a controversial move that saw an Iranian diplomat return to Tehran bedecked in flowers while a visibly gaunt aid worker headed back to Brussels. The swap took place in Oman, long an interlocutor between Iran and the West. Iranian state television showed Assadollah Assadi being welcomed by Iran’s judiciary chief and the secretary of its human rights council. In January, Iran sentenced aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele to a lengthy prison term and 74 lashes after convicting him of espionage in a closed-door trial. He had been arrested in February 2022. In 2021, Belgium convicted Assadi of masterminding a thwarted bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.