Olivier Vandecasteele met with King Filip at Laken Castle on Tuesday afternoon. Vandecasteele gave him a personal account of the 455 days he spent locked up in an Iranian jail cell.
King Filip had already spoken with Vandecasteele when he phoned him on the plane on Vandecasteele's way back to Belgium after his release last Friday. The king had invited Vandecasteele and his mother to Laken.
The meeting with the monarch lasted an hour and a half. King Filip had invited Vandecasteele because he wanted to express his support for him personally as he embarks on a recovery process following months of incarceration. The king also wished to show his appreciation to the family for the way it handled a difficult situation.
Keep Filip had stayed abreast of developments in relations with Iran during his weekly audience with Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and also enquired about Vandecasteele's situation during his 455 days of captivity. The Palace is not giving any details about the role King Filip played in the prisoner exchange that led to the NGO worker’s liberation.
King Filip reportedly called on the help of the Sultan of Oman to unblock the situation. Oman played an important diplomatic role in the prisoner exchange between Belgium and Iran, which took place in the Omani capital Muscat on Friday. King Filip paid a state visit to the Gulf state last year and rang Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on Saturday to thank him.