From Iran sentences Belgian aid worker to 28 years – family
Belgian lawyer Chloe Georgiev (L), Olivier's sister Nathalie Vandecasteele (2nd L), legal adviser Olivier Van Steirtegem (2nd R) and lawyer Olivia Venet (R), hold a press conference on December 9, 2022 in Brussels, on aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, 41, who launched a hunger strike over the "inhuman" treatment by his captors, as he is detained in Iran since February. (Photo by NICOLAS MAETERLINCK / BELGA / AFP)
Iranian authorities have imposed a 28-year sentence on jailed Belgian aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, a spokesman for his family says.
“The family are devastated,” spokesman Olivier Van Steirtegem tells AFP, after the Belgian government informed the family of the news.
Vandecasteele, 41, launched a hunger strike over the “inhuman” treatment by his captors in Iran, his family said last week, expressing worries about his failing health.
He is one of several Western nationals detained in Iran, in what foreign-based activists have said is a bid to extract concessions. Most of them also hold Iranian passports.
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