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The interest of the United States government in having in their hands the Barranquilla Álex Saab increased in the last hours, due to some statements from their own lawyers.
As part of the defense, to prevent Cape Verde from extraditing him to the United States, they revealed that Saab had made a couple of visits to Iran to negotiate the shipment of ships full of gasoline to alleviate the crisis that the Venezuelan people are going through due to their shortage.
(We invite you to read: US responds to Saab defense attack in final phase of extradition)
Saab’s lawyers admitted, in an interview with Reuters, that the Colombian made a first visit to Iran in April.
At that time, it sealed an agreement for that country to send tank ships loaded with gasoline and planes with materials for a refinery to Venezuela. In addition, food and medicine, in the face of the pandemic.
About, Saab’s defense says that at the beginning of the year, the Foreign Ministry entrusted Sabb with “the responsibility of acquiring humanitarian resources of great need in Venezuela.”
(We invite you to read: Maduro’s secret meetings with Iran to negotiate missiles)
That is why they qualify him as a special envoy of the Bolivarian government, with immunity and a diplomatic passport. And they allege that their detention in Cape Verde, on June 12, was illegal and arbitrary.
After the meeting with Saab – tried in Miami for money laundering and corruption, linked to the Maduro regime – his contacts in Iran agreed to send eight oil tankers. In addition, at least 16 flights coordinated by Mahan Air, his lawyers said.
Iran sent five ships with gasoline to Venezuela in mid-May. But, with an order from a judge, the United States seized four additional fuel shipments 15 days ago.
Nicolás Maduro describes the Iranian president, Hasan Rohaní, as his “brother.” They have forged an alliance that worries Washington.
Were the ones managed by Saab?
What is known is that the Department of Justice reported, on August 14, that it seized “approximately 1.1 million barrels of oil” with the collaboration of “foreign partners”, whose names it did not provide.
Hours earlier, the Iranian ambassador to Venezuela, Hojat Soltani, denied that his country had a relationship with the ships, although he did not rule out that his country was the place of origin or owner of the cargo.
Meanwhile, in Cape Verde the final procedures are being carried out to define whether they release Saab or extradite him to the United States where they consider it the route to reach the gold bars and dollars that have left Venezuela for Iran, Turkey and Russia.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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