Iran�s foreign minister has announced that Assadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium on false terror-related charges, has been released after an Omani-brokered deal and is on his way back to his home country.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the statement in a Persian-language post on his Twitter account on Friday after Oman�s foreign ministry officially announced that Muscat had mediated a deal between Iran and Belgium to swap their prisoners.

�Mr. Assadollah Assadi, the innocent diplomat of our country, who was illegally detained in Germany and Belgium for more than two years against international law, is now on his way back to his homeland and will soon enter our beloved Iran,� Amir-Abdollahian said.

 

�I thank the Sultanate of Oman for its positive efforts in this direction.�

Assadi�s case, according to legal experts, was based on sham and unsubstantiated charges and smacks of political propaganda against the Islamic Republic.

Belgian authorities in June 2018 said the country�s police had intercepted a car carrying homemade explosives, claiming that the Iranian diplomat handed the material to two people in Belgium. He was accused of plotting an attack against the anti-Iran Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) terrorist outfit, a claim that has been strongly rejected by Iranian authorities.

A Belgian court then sentenced the diplomat, who serves as the third counselor at Iran's Embassy in Vienna, to 20 years in prison.

By Press TV