Iran sentences imprisonment and flogging of a Belgian aid worker

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AFP) – Iran has sentenced a Belgian aid worker to long prison terms and 74 lashes after he was found guilty of espionage in a closed trial, state media reported Tuesday.

Iran’s judiciary website said a revolutionary court had sentenced 41-year-old Olivier Vandecastel to 12.5 years in prison for espionage, 12.5 years for collaborating with hostile governments, and 12.5 years for money laundering. He was also fined $1 million and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for currency smuggling.

Under Iranian law, Vandecasteele will be eligible for release after 12.5 years. The judiciary’s website said the rulings could be appealed.

Iran has detained a number of foreigners and dual nationals over the years, accusing them of espionage or other state security offenses and sentencing them after secret trials in which rights groups say they were denied due process. Critics accuse Iran of using such prisoners as bargaining chips with the West, which Iranian officials deny.

Iran has not released any details about the charges against Van Castel. It is unclear if they are related to the anti-government protests Which shook Iran for months or a long-term shadow war With Israel and the United States marked by covert attacks on Iran’s disputed nuclear programme.

The nationwide protests began after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mohsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. The demonstrators, who gathered under the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom,” said they were tired of decades of social and political oppression. Iran has blamed the protests on foreign powers without providing evidence.

Vandecastel’s family said last month that he had been held in an Iranian prison for months and that he had been on hunger strike. They said he was denied access to a lawyer of his choosing and had serious health problems.

Belgium urged its nationals to leave IranWarning that they face the risk of arbitrary detention or unfair trial.

“Iran has not provided any official information regarding the charges against Olivier Vandecastel or his trial,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hajja Lahbib said in a statement. “Today we will summon the Iranian ambassador, given the information circulated in the press,” he added.

“Belgium continues to condemn this arbitrary detention and is doing everything in its power to put an end to him and to improve his conditions of detention,” she said.

The protests, which have gone on for nearly four months with no sign of ending, represent one of the biggest challenges facing the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution that brought it to power.

At least 520 protesters have been killed and more than 19,300 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that monitors the unrest. Iranian authorities have not provided official figures on deaths or arrests.

Iran executed four people after they were found guilty of charges linked to the protests, including attacks on security forces. They have also been convicted in revolutionary courts, which do not allow those on trial to choose their own lawyer or see the evidence against them.

London-based Amnesty International said such trials “do not resemble meaningful judicial proceedings”.

Norway and Denmark summoned Iranian ambassadors this week to protest the executions and Iran’s handling of the demonstrations.

“What is happening in Iran is completely unacceptable and must stop,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Anneken Huitfeldt. We have strongly condemned the executions. … We have called on Iran to end the use of the death penalty and respect human rights.”

In Denmark, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called the executions “totally unacceptable” and said the European Union should impose additional sanctions on Iran.

On the other hand, the state news agency IRNA said on Tuesday that the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence had arrested six teams of activists linked to the Mossad, the head of Israeli intelligence and the CIA.

The report said, without providing evidence, that the spy teams planned to assassinate an unnamed high-ranking military official and carried out several sabotage operations in the country’s major cities.

The report also stated that the security forces identified 23 alleged members of these teams and arrested 13 of them who were in the country.