Vandecasteele was sentenced by an Iranian court in January to 40 years in prison, 74 lashes and a $1 million fine, Iranian state-aligned and judiciary news agency Mizan said.

The 41-year-old aid worker was sentenced for charges of espionage for a foreign intelligence service and money laundering. Rights group Amnesty International said he had been “arbitrarily detained” and a campaign advocating for his release said his arrest was spurred by “diplomatic-geopolitical reasons.”

“After 455 days of unjust imprisonment, Olivier Vandecasteele has finally regained his freedom. He is scheduled to arrive in Belgium tonight, following 15 months of intense and discreet diplomacy,” the Belgian foreign ministry statement said.

Assadi, who was based in Vienna, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court in 2021 over a foiled terrorist plot outside Paris in 2018.

In a judgment in March, the Belgian constitutional court paved the way to Assadi’s release in exchange for Vandecasteele, after rejecting an appeal launched to stop an Iranian-Belgian prisoner exchange treaty.

Read more on the original:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/26/world/belgium-iran-prisoner-swap-intl/index.html