By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

Imagine a small and insignificant European mini state with no historical roots, bearing its tiny fangs at Iran!
It was magnanimity on the part of the Islamic Republic to release a convicted spy without subjecting him to the 74-lashes punishment as a humanitarian gesture following Belgium’s realization of its folly in violating the diplomatic immunity of Assadollah Assadi and subjecting him to three years in prison (preceded by 2 years imprisonment in Germany) on the orders of the US and the illegal Zionist entity.
Belgian Olivier Vandecasteele who disguised as an aid worker conducted espionage activities in Iran, should be thankful to the mercy shown by the Islamic Republic’s judicial system in releasing him after only 455 days in detention of a 40-year sentence for passing to the US and Israel sensitive information.
Hope he has learned his lesson and should be extra careful in being used again by the Americans and the Zionists to spy on other countries. Such criminals are often liable for capital punishment.
Anyway, our innocent diplomat is back home after his illegal imprisonment and five torturous years in the prisons of Germany and Belgium on being framed up by the kangaroo courts of Berlin and Brussels on the disinformation given by terrorists and fugitives from justice in Iran sponsored by the West.
Assadi, who was posted at the Iranian embassy in Austria, and enjoyed fully diplomatic immunity, was stopped on his way back to his office in Vienna while crossing through a third country in Germany, where he was arrested on false charges.
It was gross violation of international law and despite protests by Iran his case was dragged on by Germany on pretext of the so-called investigation process for two years, and on 15 July 2020, handed over to a court in Belgium.
It is unfortunate that most West European countries have become a safe haven for terrorists and traitors fleeing their homeland from justice, especially from Iran.
These pro-Zionist European regimes, as part of their blind hostility towards Iran since 1979, give a free hand to hypocrites and convicts from the Islamic Republic, and have a track record of harassing innocent Iranian citizens visiting the West as well as diplomats.
Recently, these regimes lauded and encouraged thugs in Iran to murder citizens and security forces, and when some of these killers were caught and given due punishment, the Europeans carried on an intense propaganda campaign to try to tarnish the image of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Currently, the most prominent Iranian languishing in a European dungeon for no fault is former judicial official, Hamid Nouri, who was detained in Sweden while on a tourist visa, and has been given a life sentence on completely false extraterritorial charges brought against him by the MKO terrorists.
Iran has served ultimatum to Sweden to free Nouri, and if his imprisonment drags on Tehran has no other choice but to teach Stockholm an unforgettable lesson.