WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) - Iranian authorities have informed the Belgian Embassy in Tehran that a Belgian citizen living in Iran has been arrested on spying charges.
Belgian high officials in the embassy said they were not informed of any further details regarding the identity of the person, who is being detained for gathering classified information.
The Iran News Agency (IRNA) reported that the Public Relations Office of Tehran’s Justice Department said in the statement issued Tuesday that the arrest was made on November 19th on the order of Branch 3 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Earlier this year, Iranian-Belgium relations became tense over a lawsuit filed in Belgium against former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani for violating human rights. An Iranian-born Belgian woman brought the lawsuit in front of Belgium courts.
Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the Belgian ambassador in March to protest that the lawsuit, which it described as a "blatant example of interference in the internal affairs of Iran."
Another spying case in Iran that attracted international attention involved 10 Jews and two Muslim Iranians convicted of espionage for Israel. After appeal efforts, the sentences of some prisoners were lessened to three years of imprisonment, instead of ten.
A Briton was the last non-Iranian to be arrested for espionage in 1998, he was held only for a brief period.
