By Bankole Adesina
The defense team of Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat detained in Cape Verde as a result of US sanctions against the Venezuelan government has today called on the Cape Verdean authorities to obey recent court rulings and release the man.
The call was made at a press conference held Thursday morning to provide an update on the detention of Saab, who has now been in captivity for 308 days.
The Press Conference was led by Africa’s leading Human Rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, and Cape Verde constitutional and criminal lawyer Dr Jose-Manuel Pinto Monteiro, Mr Saab’s lead counsel in Cape Verde.
Mr Pinto, in an emotional statement, said having recently met with Saab, said that his client had been deprived of his most basic human rights, humiliated, ill-treated and threatened. He said Saab’s health had deteriorated, adding that “Cape Verde had refused bilateral diplomatic dialogue with the Republic of Venezuela.
“If every state behaved this way,” he added, “then there would be no international order.”
Dr Pinto also noted that Saab wanted “to send a massive hug to my wife Camilla who has been my rock and also to all of my children who have been a huge source of comfort to me.”
Mr Falana echoed those views. When asked about a US frigate that had been sent last year to the coast of West Africa, he accused the United States of America of trying to intimidate Cape Verde, and by extension Africa, by flexing its muscles.
“We are calling on President Biden to walk the talk and when he talks of his commitment to restore law and order in his country, that this is also extended to other parts of the world, ” Falana said.
The lawyers said the law was on their side and should Cape Verde continue to defy the ECOWAS court, the country risked economic sanctions and could see itself suspended from the community.
They also said Saab did not risk early extradition until the higher courts had delivered their decision to the appeal that Saab’s lawyers had submitted.
The Ecowas Community Court of Justice (ECCJ) in Abuja on March 15 2021, declared that Alex Saab should be immediately released, that the extradition process against him be terminated and that he be compensated for what it declared as his unlawful detention.
Alex Saab, a Venezuelan Special Envoy and Alternate Permanent Representative to the African Union, was detained by Cape Verdean authorities on 12 June 2020.
The country said this was in response to an international arrest warrant circulated by INTERPOL which had in turn been issued on the basis of an alleged Red Notice issued at the request of the United States.
His lawyers said at the time of his arrest, neither the copy of the arrest warrant nor the alleged Red Notice were presented to Saab.
Saab is accused by US prosecutors in Miami of money laundering offences in connection with a contract to build houses for a social welfare programme launched during President Hugo Chavez’s time in office. Those charges have been left looking politically motivated after money laundering charges against Saab, linked to the same contracts, were recently dropped by the Geneva Prosecutors for lack of evidence after a three- year investigation.
The ECCJ noted in its ruling that the Red Notice was only issued after Mr Saab’s arrest and that there was no arrest warrant, thus making the extradition request purely political.
On 16 March, in direct defiance of the binding ECCJ 15 March Ruling, the Cape Verde Supreme Court of Justice approved the extradition of Saab to the United States. This action goes against the ECOWAS Treaty and various protocols which established the ECCJ. Continued failure to comply with the 15 March Ruling Cape Verde risks being sanctioned by ECOWAS.
The decision of Cape Verde Supreme Court of Justice is now being appealed to the Constitutional court of the Republic of Cape Verde.
Both Mr Falana and Dr Pinto called for Cape Verde to honour its international treaty obligations and release the diplomat.
The African Bar Association’s (AfBA) has also entered the debate and warned of serious consequences for ECOWAS’s raison d’être and a potential splintering of the organisation if Cape Verde’s non-compliance goes unchallenged by the regional group.
The Supreme Court of Cape Verde held that it is left to the Executive to take a decision on the diplomatic status of Mr Saab.