January 10, 2023
Iran is punishing a Belgian national with 74 lashes and 40 years in prison for espionage charges, according to state media.
Olivier Vandecasteele, a 41-year-old former Belgian aid worker who has been imprisoned since last February, received the sentence along with a $1 million fine for charges pertaining to the espionage accusations, per Al Jazeera. The verdict can be appealed.
The sentencing came from a closed-door trial and reportedly entails 12 1/2 years for collaboration with hostile foreign powers, 12 1/2 years in prison for espionage, 12 1/2 years for money laundering, and 2 1/2 years for currency smuggling. He was found guilty of all four fronts and accused of “cooperating with the hostile United States government against the Islamic Republic."
Sources claimed that Tehran believed he entered the country under the auspices of "humanitarian efforts with the aim of spying for the hostile US government and distributing money to groups active in anti-security fields," Al Jazeera reported. He has adamantly denied the allegations, and Belgium has decried his detainment as “illegal."
Vandecasteele's relatives previously claimed he had been slapped with a 28-year sentence, according to Al Jazeera. He may later qualify for release after 12 1/2 years behind bars in keeping with Iranian law, according to state media. Vandecasteele's family has also revealed that he embarked on a hunger strike during his detainment and has suffered health woes.
Belgium issued a stark warning to its citizens last year to eschew Iran or leave as soon as possible, warning they could face arbitrary detainment.
Relations between Belgium and Iran have soured in recent years following the 2018 arrest of Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi for allegedly hatching plans to bomb France. Further worsening of the relations has been caused by Western support of the protests rocking Iran over the September death of Mahsa Amini, who had been apprehended by the morality police for purportedly flouting dress restrictions. She died during her detainment.
Iran and the European Union, of which Belgium is a member, have exchanged sanctions against one another.
Many critics, largely from the West, have decried Iran's lack of due process and accused the oil-rich country of apprehending foreigners like Vandecasteele for leverage against the West. Iran has roundly dismissed those assertions.
Iran executions quash protests, push dissent underground
January 10, 2023
Iran's hanging of protesters -- and display of their lifeless bodies suspended from cranes -- seems to have instilled enough fear to keep people off the streets after months of anti-government unrest.
The success of the crackdown on the worst political turmoil in years is likely to reinforce a view among Iran's hardline rulers that suppression of dissent is the way to keep power.
The achievement may prove shortlived, however, according analysts and experts who spoke to Reuters. They argue the resort to deadly state violence is merely pushing dissent underground, while deepening anger felt by ordinary Iranians about the clerical establishment that has ruled them for four decades.
"It has been relatively successful since the number of people on the streets has decreased," said Saeid Golkar of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, referring to the crackdown and executions.
"However, it has created a massive resentment among Iranians."
Executive Director at the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, Hadi Ghaemi said the establishment's main focus was to intimidate the population into submission by any means.
"Protests have taken a different shape, but not ended. People are either in prison or they have gone underground because they are determined to find a way to keep fighting," he said.
Defying public fury and international criticism, Iran has handed down dozens of death sentences to intimidate Iranians enraged by the death of Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, 22.
Her death in the custody of morality police in September 2022 unleashed years of pent up anger in society, over issues ranging from economic misery and discrimination against ethnic minorities to tightening social and political controls.
At least four people have been hanged since the demonstrations started, according to the judiciary, including two protesters on Saturday for allegedly killing a member of the volunteer Basij militia forces.
Amnesty International said last month Iranian authorities are seeking the death penalty for at least 26 others in what it called "sham trials designed to intimidate protesters".
The moves reflect what experts say is the religious leadership's consistent approach to government ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought it to power -- a readiness to use whatever force is needed to crush dissent.
ECONOMIC MISERY
Protests, which have slowed considerably since the hangings began, have been at their most intense in the Sunni-populated areas of Iran and are currently mostly limited to those regions.
And yet, the analysts said, a revolutionary spirit that managed to take root across the country during the months of protest may yet survive the security crackdown -- not least because the protesters' grievances remain unaddressed.
With deepening economic misery, largely because of U.S. sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear work, many Iranians are feeling the pain of galloping inflation and rising joblessness.
Inflation has soared to over 50%, the highest level in decades. Youth unemployment remains high with over 50% of Iranians being pushed below the poverty line, according to reports by Iran's Statistics Center.
"There is no turning point (back to the status quo), and the regime cannot go back to the era before Mahsa's death," Ghaemi said.
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said Tehran was banking on repression and violence as its way out of this crisis.
"This might work in the short term but ... it won’t work in the long term," Vatanka said, citing reasons such as Iran's deteriorating economy and its fearless young population who want "big political change, and they will fight for it."
There are no signs that President Ebrahim Raisi or other leaders are trying to come up with fresh policies to try and win over the public. Instead, their attention appears to be fixed on security.
The clerical leadership appears worried that exercising restraint over protesters could make them look weak among their political and paramilitary supporters, the analysts said.
Reuters could not reach officials at Raisi's office for comment.
Golkar said an additional motive for the executions was the leadership's need to satisfy core supporters in organisations like the Basij, the volunteer militia that has been instrumental at countering the spontaneous and leaderless unrest.
KHAMENEI BACKS CRACKDOWN
"The regime wants to message its supporters that it will support them by all means," Golkar said.
To send shockwaves, the authorities imposed travel bans and jail terms on several public figures from athletes to artists and rappers. A karate champion was among those executed.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday signalled the state has no intention of softening its crackdown, saying in a televised speech that those who "set fire to public places have committed treason with no doubt".
Wielding uncompromising state power has been a central theme of Raisi's career. He is under U.S. sanctions over a past that includes what the United States and activists say was his role overseeing the killings of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s.
When asked about those 1980s killings, Raisi told reporters shortly after his election in 2021 that he should be praised for defending the security of the people.
Ghaemi said the main officials pushing for the executions today were deeply involved in the 1980s killings of prisoners.
"But this is not the 1980s when they carried all those crimes in darkness," he said. "Everything they do gets on social media and attracts huge international attention."
Germany’s relationship with Iran under fire as weak link against regime
January 10, 2023
Germany’s longstanding efforts to conduct business with the Islamic Republic of Iran include a robust trade relationship at a time when the regime has reportedly killed at least 700 protesters and arrested as many as 19,000.
Berlin is facing intense criticism for placating Tehran. The protests across Iran in response to the murder of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini have pushed Germany’s so-called "feminist foreign policy" into the spotlight. The regime’s notorious morality police allegedly tortured Amini to death for failing to "properly" wear her mandatory hijab.
Germany has consistently been the Islamic Republic’s most important trade partner. According to recently published statistics from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, Germany exported more than $1.2 billion in merchandise to Iran from January to October 2022. Germany imported more than $277 million in goods from Iran.
The Federal Republic exported $293 million in machines and engineering technology to Iran in 2022. The German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce announced on its website that "Germany is still Iran’s largest trade partner in Europe."
In December, Berlin declared it was suspending state incentives to promote trade with Iran due to the repression of demonstrators. The suspension involves export credits and investment insurance guarantees to German companies. Germany’s trade volume with Iran totaled $1.87 billion in 2021.
Germany’s porous export regulations have permitted dual-use technology to be sold to Iran over the years. In 2018, Fox News Digital reported that Germany sold material to Iranian businesses that was used in chemical missile attacks in Syria. The rockets poisoned dozens of civilians, including children.
Berlin has declined to stop German and Iranian banks from processing payments to companies involved in bilateral trade. The Iranian-owned bank European-Iranian Trade Bank (EIH) located in Hamburg and German banks (Volksbank Konstanz and Volksbank Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar) situated in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg have reportedly provided transactions for sensitive business deals. Fox News Digital sent a press query to the U.S. Treasury Department regarding German banks processing payments for Iran’s regime.
The U.S. Treasury Department previously accused the European-Iranian Trade Bank of playing an illegal role in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs following the intervention of the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who stopped Germany in 2018 from processing a $400 million payment via EIH to Iran’s regime.
"Germany, an American ally, has a propensity to overlook the threat from the radical regime in Iran," Grenell told Fox News Digital. "German leaders regularly believe the threat to them and Europe isn’t a serious concern, but time and time again it’s because German political officials aren’t speaking to German intelligence officials enough to see the threat.
"American pressure on the German government to pay attention to these threats is crucial, and it starts with the U.S. ambassador demanding action."
Grenell, who also served as the acting director of national intelligence (DNI) during the Trump administration, compelled a reluctant Germany to sanction Iran’s alleged terrorist airline Mahan Air. Mahan Air is the main airline used by Tehran to transport weapons into Syria and Lebanon. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Mahan Air for its role in the Syrian regime’s atrocities and under a "counter proliferation authority that targets weapons of mass destruction proliferators and their supporters."
Iran’s regime sanctioned Grenell for his efforts to improve human rights in Iran and end the executions of gays and lesbians in the Islamic Republic. He also played a decisive role in forcing Berlin, after decades of fierce resistance, to in 2020 ban all the activities of the Lebanese terrorist movement Hezbollah in Germany. Hezbollah is the Iranian regime’s chief strategic partner.
In 1983, Hezbollah bombed the U.S. military barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 243 Marines and 58 French paratroopers. In 2007, Hezbollah operative Ali Musa Daqduq was instrumental in the murder of five American soldiers in Karbala, Iraq.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "Germany is an invaluable partner, critical to the vibrancy of the Trans-Atlantic partnership. We continue to deepen our relationship with Germany and to tackle together tough international issues, including Iran, Russia’s war against Ukraine, the global economy, security, protecting human rights and fostering democracy."
Germany has been an energetic supporter of the Iran nuclear deal that would lift economic sanctions on Iran’s regime in exchange for promises of temporary restrictions on Tehran’s atomic program.
Berlin would reportedly stand to reap an economic windfall totaling billions of dollars in trade if the tough sanctions are lifted. German intelligence agencies have over the years documented Tehran’s illicit efforts to obtain material for its nuclear program.
Late last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a weekly video message that Germany stood "shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people," and praised the bravery of the protesters, "Those who demonstrate against oppression in Iran risk their lives and often also the lives of their loved ones – and face the prospect of torture and decades in prison," he said.
Fox News Digital's press queries sent to German chancellor's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit were not immediately returned.
"If we want to be diplomatic, then let’s just say Germany is a weak link," Michael Rubin, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Thirty years ago, its foreign minister formulated Europe's outreach to Iran, and Germany’s diplomats and business community have never since been able to admit failure. From Tehran’s standpoint, the Germans are consistent useful idiots willing to believe in the sincerity or possibility of any initiative Iranian diplomats propose."
Germany could exert far greater pressure on the regime, he said.
"Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) controls perhaps 40% of the Iranian economy. A greater share of the IRGC budget comes from these companies than from parliament. This is why it’s so important to sanction the entirety of the IRGC," Rubin said.
The U.S. has sanctioned the IRGC, and the State Department has routinely classified Iran as the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Now, the United Kingdom is reportedly preparing to sanction the IRGC. According to the Telegraph, the IRGC was behind 10 plots to kidnap and murder people in Britain in 2022.
In December, German state security forces accused the IRGC of sponsoring terrorism against synagogues in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and spying on the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
"We’re talking about state terrorism here," a state investigator told German TV station ARD’s political magazine Kontraste.
The IRGC and Iranian nationals have reportedly launched terror plots and attacked synagogues in Germany. On Saturday, German police arrested two Iranian nationals for an "Islamist-motivated attack" to spread the chemical weapons cyanide and ricin.
The spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry, Christofer Burger, declined to answer a series of detailed Fox News Digital questions about German-Iran relations and whether Germany will sanction the IRGC. However, Germany’s Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, wrote on Twitter shortly after Fox News Digital sent press queries that "Listing the Revolutionary Guards as terrorist organizations is politically important and makes sense." She is seeking that the EU list the IRGC as a terror organization.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior researcher at Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF) and a former head of the research division at the Israel Defense Forces, also told Fox News Digital that Berlin is a weak component in the effort to pressure Iran’s regime to change its behavior.
"Germany is always looking for the opportunity to do business with Iran. It is difficult to convince them not to do it. Everyone understands Iran is suppressing the will of Iranian protesters who want freedom, Iran is helping Russia [in its war against Ukraine] and that Iran refuses to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of that matters to Germany," he said.
"The Iranian people are bravely demonstrating for freedom," Saba Farzan, a German-Iranian dissident who is chairwoman of the Free Democratic Party’s (FDP) Gendarmenmarkt chapter in the heart of Berlin, told Fox News Digital.
"Changes in German-Iran policy have already happened, but not significantly enough. The IRGC must be classified as a terror organization because it is one. A diplomatic boycott of the regime must happen as well as an end to all kinds of city partnerships because they only benefit the corrupt regime and absolutely not Iran’s civil society."
Moritz Kraemer, the chief economist for the partially state-owned Landesbank Baden-Württemberg LBBW in the state of Baden-Württemberg, announced last May regarding Germany that "intensive talks are already being held behind the scenes with Venezuela, Iran or Algeria to cover Germany’s oil and gasoline needs."
However, Germany’s foreign ministry told Fox News Digital, "The fact is that there are no talks or plans to buy oil or gas from Iran."
Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany, told Fox News Digital, "Not only Germany, but any democracy must cut its diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic. For years, the Iranian dissidents have been urging Germany to take effective action against the Islamic Republic, which kills its own people, as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz mentioned in his speech."
Vojoudi, a spokesperson for the Senate of the National Iranian Congress, said it "is the responsibility of the international society to step in and stop this regime. It’s time to activate the R2P [Responsibility to Protect]. This [week], the Islamic Republic executed two other Iranian youths, Mohammad Hosseini and Mohammad Mehdi Karami, because they protested against the regime. Would Germany do the same to its people if they protested?
"Many times we’ve asked Germany to expel the Islamic Republic’s diplomats and to recall its diplomats from Iran, and I would ask it again."
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