Alex Saab’s defense appealed to the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde and has so far prevented Maduro’s leader from being extradited to the United States

The defense of Alex Saab, presumed leader of the Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, He filed a last-minute appeal on Wednesday with which he managed to prevent his extradition to the North American country of Cape Verde for the time being., where he has been held since June 12.

Saab’s attorneys’ request will prolong the process in the African country and prevent its transfer to Miami in the coming hours, which US authorities were seeking to judge for money laundering. As reported by Colombian media Time, it may take between two weeks and two months to resolve.

This is the last possible resort for the Colombian and his defense. In case of failure, there will be no more obstacles to his extradition. Hours earlier, Cape Verde’s Supreme Court of Justice delivered a verdict in which it dismissed a new appeal and upheld a lower court’s decision to approve his surrender.

“The judges of the Supreme Court agree to dismiss the appeal and confirm, for all legal purposes, the contested decisionThat is, the decision in favor of extradition handed down last year by the Court of Appeal of Barlavento, based on the northern island of San Vicente, according to the decision, to which the agency had access EFE.

The deliberation of the Supreme Court also considered that Cape Verde not linked to decisions of the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who spoke out last Monday against the leader’s extradition and ordered his immediate release.

Therefore, according to the High Court of Cape Verde, the judgment of the ECOWAS tribunal will not be accepted by the judicial authorities of this West African island country.

El colombiano, de 49 años, fue detenido el 12 de junio de 2020 cuando el avión en el que viajaba hizo escala para repostar en el Aeropuerto Internacional Amilcar Cabral de la isla caboverdiana de Sal, tras una petición estadounidense through Interpol por supuesto blanqueo silver.

The businessman, born in Barranquilla and of Lebanese origin, is linked to several companies, including Group Grand Limited (GGL), accused of providing food with additional costs for a Maduro regime’s aid program for the underprivileged, known as CLAP. A US government official said in July 2019 that with the CLAPs, Saab and Maduro’s three stepchildren were spuriously making “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

Saab’s name first appeared in the media when former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega accused him in 2017 of being a pioneer of Maduro. According to the United States, between November 2011 and September 2015, Saab and his right-hand man, Álvaro Enrique Pulido, laundered up to $ 350 million defrauded through the exchange control system. Because they have colluded with others to launder their illicit proceeds and transfer them from Venezuela to US bank accounts, Washington has jurisdiction over this matter..

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