Speaking at a press conference after arriving at Copenhagen Airport, Thomas Kjems hailed the hospitality extended to him in Iran.
“In Iran, I was treated like a guest… There was no physical torture or any other thing,” he said.
Kjems was released on humanitarian grounds along with Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, who had been convicted of spying and security charges, respectively.
The three men were freed in return for Iranian diplomat Asadollah Assadi as part of a prisoner exchange which also saw Iran releasing Belgian national Olivier Vandecasteele.
After a stop in Oman and medical examinations, they were flown to the Melsbroek military airport just outside Brussels.
Both Oman and Belgium had helped broker the release.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen thanked Belgium, saying Oman had “played an important role.”
Kjems had been arrested in November 2022 over violent riots that broke out across Iran following the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
Amini fainted at a police station in the capital Tehran and was pronounced dead three days later at the hospital. An official report by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization concluded that Amini’s death was caused by illness rather than alleged blows to the head or other vital body organs.
Several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have used their spy and propaganda apparatuses to provoke the deadly riots, according to Iran’s intelligence community.
