(AFP) Belgian judges granted a request Friday from opponents of the country’s new prisoner-swap deal with Tehran to block any attempt to send home an Iranian diplomat convicted on terror charges until the decision can be challenged in court.
A lawyer acting for an exiled Iranian opposition group told AFP the Brussels appeal court had ordered that the Belgian government not hand over Assadollah Assadi to Iran without allowing the decision to be legally challenged and confirmed by a judge.
Georges-Henri Beauthier, a lawyer acting for the exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said the court had granted an order that the government’s case for any proposed release of Assadi be subject to “cross-examination before a judge.”
