Belgian lawmakers on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a prisoner swap deal with Iran that could lead to the release of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to detonate a bomb during a rally of an Iranian opposition group abroad.
The Foreign Relations Committee of the Belgian Parliament debated the treaty for more than six hours over two days until it was finally approved.
The treaty still has to be submitted to the 150-seat House of Representatives, which is likely to happen in the next two weeks, but the House usually follows the vote of its committees because it has an even mix of party alliances.
The treaty could help free a Belgian aid worker who has been in Iran since February, as well as Ahmadreza Jalali, a Swedish-Iranian academic who studied in Belgium and was sentenced to death in Iran.
On the other hand, Iran wants the release of Asadollah Asadi, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium for the bombing plot that was thwarted in 2018.
His trial was the first trial of an Iranian official accused of terrorism in Europe since the 1979 Iranian revolution.
It is not clear when the exchange of prisoners between the two countries may take place.
Several Belgian lawmakers expressed concern that the proposed treaty would lead to so-called “hostage diplomacy” and put other Belgians at risk of detention.
For its part, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, whose meeting was bombed near Paris in 2018, described the treaty as “shameful” and said: “Esadi should stay in prison.”
Farzin Hashemi, the vice-chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said during a demonstration in which about 100 members of this council were present near the Belgian Parliament: “If Assad had succeeded, hundreds of people would have been killed.”
He added: “The experiences of the last four decades show us that giving concessions to a terrorist regime only makes it bolder and endangers the lives of more innocent people.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
