What will Alex Saab’s strategy be in the event of extradition to the United States?

Cape Verdean justice to deliver key verdict for the future of Colombian businessman Alex Saab in a week, the leader of the dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas maduro, and detained for over a year in this African country following an extradition request from the United States.

As part of the international team defending Saab explained this Friday at a virtual press conference, the decision that goes out of sight that the Constitutional Court will hold on Aug 13 it might be “final“ concerning extradition if the Cape Verdean justice rejects the appeals presented for the alleged “unconstitutionality” of the circumstances of his detention.

If he decides in favor of Saab, as detailed by his lawyer in Cape Verde, José Manuel Pinto Monteiro, the case would return to the local lower courts to deal with the alleged unconstitutionality.

Saab officials – who claim his detention is illegal because, allegedly, when the Colombian stopped in Cape Verde, he was traveling to Iran to represent the Venezuelan regime with diplomatic status – alleged in those calls that both the Cape Verdean police during his detention and the local justice they were violate the rights of the Colombian businessman.

Pinto Monteiro also claimed that in recent times Saab’s health has been “worsen” by a “disease“That he suffers and for which he could not be treated during his detention, nor examined by adequate medical teams.

Despite this, Saab awaits the hearing the next day 13 “confident”, but “nervous”, said Pinto Monteiro, in light of previous decisions of the Cape Verdean justice.

“If Mr Saab is unfortunately deported, he will continue to enjoy diplomatic immunity», Defended, for his part, his lawyer in the United States, David rivkin, who stressed that this status should also mean his immediate launch return to Venezuela.

“POLITICAL MOTIVATION” LEADS THE PROCESS, ACCORDING TO GARZÓN

Although he did not attend this press conference, the former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who coordinates international defense, shortly after sent a statement in which he highlighted the alleged illegalities surrounding this process, such as the alleged torture of Saab in Cape Verde or the lack of evidence in the United States to justify the process. ‘extradition.

“Cape Verde and the Constitutional Court are at a crossroads. If he gives in in the case of the extradition of Alex Saab, in which political motivation is the only verifiable and permanent element that transcends, the whole process humiliates the Cape Verdean people, ”Garzón said in his statement.

Likewise, both the former Spanish judge and the lawyers who attended the press conference recalled that Cape Verde had ignored the decisions of the supranational bodies which called for the end of the extradition and / or the review of the process. , such as the Court of the Economic Community of West African States. (ECOWAS) or the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC).

THE ARREST AND THE CHARGES AGAINST SAAB

Saab was arrested on June 12, 2020 when its plane stopped at Amilcar Cabral International Airport on the Cape Verdean island of Sal, in accordance with a US request via Interpol, but the defense alleges that this alert was issued after the arrest.

After his arrest, Venezuela also claimed that Saab was a Venezuelan citizen and an “agent” of the government, who was “in transit” in Cape Verde, for which his lawyers contend that “he has the right to inviolability. personal as special envoy of Venezuela “.

The 49-year-old businessman’s name appeared in the media when former Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz accused him in 2017 of being one of the Venezuelan president’s straw men..

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

According to the US government, the Colombian businessman and three of Maduro’s step-sons profited from these operations with “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

(With information from EFE)

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