A Belgian aid worker arrived back in Belgium on Friday night from Iran, where he had been accused of spying and jailed until being freed in a prisoner swap with an Iranian diplomat who had been imprisoned in Belgium in connection with a failed bomb plot.
Aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, 42, was arrested on a visit to Iran in February 2022 and sentenced in January to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes on charges including spying. The Belgian government said on Friday they had reason to believe that Iran had been planning to increase his sentence.
