Cape Verde’s Constitutional Court refused to suspend Alex Saab’s extradition to the United States

Cape Verde’s Constitutional Court rejected Alex Saab’s defense appeal, considered a leading figure of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolas maduro, at suspend the extradition procedure, as requested by the UN Human Rights Committee.

According to the decision of this court, consulted this Wednesday by the agency Portuguese, The three magistrates unanimously decided to reject the appeal for “compliance with the request for the adoption of precautionary measures”. formulated by the Committee to the State of Cape Verde: This is the suspension of the extradition process to the United States..

In the decision, the Constitutional Court determined, among other arguments, that the state of Cape Verde is not obliged to comply with the request of this United Nations committee and “There are no sufficiently convincing reasons to justify its acceptance”.

Colombian business man was arrested on June 12 last year when his plane stopped to refuel at the Amilcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal (the largest in Cape Verde), in response to a request by the United States via Interpol for crimes of money laundering.

After his arrest, Venezuela stressed that Saab is a Venezuelan citizen and an “agent” of the executive, who was “in transit” in Cape Verde to return to the country.

Saab, born in the Colombian city of Barranquilla and of Lebanese origin, is linked to several companies, including Group Grand Limited (GGL), accused of providing food and supplies with supplements to the Maduro administration.

The remaining steps for Sabb to be extradited to the United States

Extradition is on appeal filed by the defense in April before the Constitutional Court, still without a final decision.

The Attorney General of Cape Verde had already declared at the end of June that the United Nations Human Rights Committee does not have the jurisdiction to impose on the country the suspension of the extradition procedure.

“If there is a human rights complaint, what (the Committee) needs to do is investigate and find out. If you find that such a violation exists, report it to the United Nations, but does not have the jurisdiction to impose on the country the stay of pending proceedings before the courts “, He said José Luis Landim, requested by journalists.

On June 9, the United Nations Human Rights Committee urged Cape Verde to “refrain from extraditing“Alex Saab in the United States, urging him to guarantee”appropriate medical care”.

For the prosecutor, to comply with this imposition would have endangered the sovereignty of the country, where the courts are independent.

The highest representative of the prosecution recalled that the main extradition procedure is in the constitutional Court, corn did not risk a specified time frame for a conclusion.

“I think we’re near the end now. I can not specify, nor does it correspond to me, but I believe that we are close to the decision of the Constitutional Court“, advancement.

Who is Alex Saab

Alex Saab – of Lebanese origin and born in the town of Barranquilla – is linked to several companies. But his main connection to Maduro would go through Grand Limited Group (GGL), suitable for selling to the diet food at subsidized prices to distribute in poor neighborhoods.

However, Saab and Maduro have been accused on different occasions of using the program, known as CLAP, in order to illegally seize hundreds of millions of dollars.

Indeed, Saab, along with three of Maduro’s stepchildren and nine other people, were sanctioned in July 2019 by the United States for this precise maneuver.. For this reason, everyone has frozen any holdings or real estate they may have in the United States.

“Alex Saab engaged with Maduro informants to lead a large-scale corruption network that they cruelly used to exploit the starving population of Venezuela. The Treasury targets those behind Maduro’s sophisticated bribery schemes, as well as the global network of front companies that profit from the former regime’s military-controlled food distribution program.», Explained at the time the former secretary of the Treasury, Steven mnuchin.

“The corruption network that runs the CLAP program has allowed Maduro and his relatives to rob the Venezuelan people. They use food as a form of social control, to reward political supporters and punish opponents, while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a series of fraudulent schemes.“He added.

Although he remained a low-key and irrelevant businessman in Colombia, Saab’s name appeared in the media when the former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega accused him in 2017 of being one of Maduro’s leading men.

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