A week after the release of Belgian Olivier Vandecasteele, three other Europeans, until then detained in Iran, have been released and are currently on their way back, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced on Friday June 2. "Belgium is currently organizing their evacuation via Oman to Belgium," its services said in a statement. He also thanked the Sultanate for "the central role played during these releases".
The first, a Dane, was arrested "on the sidelines of women's rights rallies" in November 2022. The other two, Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, are Iranian-Austrians, an official source in Vienna said. The first had been incarcerated since January 2016. The second, arrested three years later, had been released in November 2022 for medical reasons, but was prohibited from leaving Iran.
"I am relieved that we can finally bring Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb home after years of difficult detention in Iran," Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said in a statement. "They are already on their way to Austria, where their families are eagerly awaiting them. »
Already on May 26, Iran released Belgian humanitarian Olivier Vandecasteele after 455 days in detention. Belgium had obtained his return, already via the Sultanate of Oman, in exchange for an Iranian diplomat convicted of terrorism and imprisoned in Belgium for almost five years.
This diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, then stationed in Vienna, was arrested in the summer of 2018 in Germany, then sentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorism in 2021 in Belgium, for a planned attack which was to target a gathering of Iranian opponents in France.
After his release last Friday, he was greeted with gifts and a lei in Tehran by two senior Iranian government officials.
