A group of Belgian and international UN experts in human rights, criminal justice, and international law have urged Brussels to resist Iran’s hostage diplomacy tactics. 

In an open letter on Wednesday, a group of 68 current and former EU and UN judges, special advisers, and legal experts, wrote to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, “Rather than helping to foster impunity in Iran by releasing a convicted terrorist, the Belgian government should unequivocally declare that Assadollah Assadi will not be released back to Iran."

Earlier in the month, Iran’s foreign ministry reiterated calls for release of the former official. Assadi, 50, a former attaché at the Iranian embassy in Austria, was convicted of plotting to bomb a gathering of the exiled opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) near Paris on June 30, 2018. Iran says Nouri’s detention is driven by “false allegations” made by the MEK. 

They expressed their deep concerns that “Releasing Assadollah Assadi back to Iran would only fuel the culture of impunity that exists for Iran's officials.”

Referring to a treaty between Tehran and Brussels on expatriation of convicts, they said that article 13 of the treaty states that "Each Party may grant pardon, amnesty or commutation of the sentence in accordance with its Constitution or other laws,” which would “effectively allow the Iranian government to grant pardon to Assadi the moment he arrives in Iran.”

Iran has been accused of wrongfully detaining at least a dozen foreign and dual nationals on trumped up charges, effectively as hostages to extract concessions from Western governments. Most of them are held on spurious spying charges.