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The Government of Nicolás Maduro granted a new title to Alex Saab, who is being held in the African country of Cape Verde, awaiting extradition proceedings. The businessman from Barranquilla continues to be a diplomatic agent of Venezuela, but now before the African Union.
The Bolivarian country undertook a new move in favor of its special envoy, Alex Saab who, since June 12, has been detained in Cape Verde (Africa) when his plane made a stopover to refuel at the island’s Amilcar Cabral International Airport Cape Verdean from Sal (north), due to a request from the United States through Interpol in which he is classified as a front man of President Nicolás Maduro dedicated to money laundering.
The Barranquilla businessman who has served as Venezuela’s special envoy since April 2018, was awarded a new title. Now, he was designated by the Nicolás Maduro regime as: extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, alternate permanent representative of the Venezuelan Mission to the African Union, based in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), as revealed by the newspaper Time.
Through a letter, dated December 28, 2020, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister, Jorge Arreaza, asks the African Union that the new extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador assume his duties in Ethiopia “as soon as possible.” Another member of the Saab defense team, Rutsel Martha, explained to said media that “accreditation to the African Union is important because of the organization’s position on the immunity of heads of state and other senior officials.”
However, in an interview published by The viewer Last week, the former Spanish judge, now Saab’s lawyer, Baltasar Garzón, made it clear that since two years ago he was appointed as Venezuela’s special envoy “Mr. Saab is a political agent of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and, as such , has the right to immunity and inviolability enshrined in the Vienna Convention, the United Nations Convention on Special Missions and customary international law ”.
That is precisely one of the main arguments of the Saab defense team to argue that the detention in Cape Verde of its client is illegal, especially when he was carrying out a humanitarian mission to Iran and, at that time, was carrying the proper documentation that It accredited his quality as a diplomatic agent. “The substance of the matter, that is, the scope of diplomatic inviolability and immunity, will be decided in February. This is where, predictably, it will be decreed that he cannot be extradited due to his status as a diplomatic agent, ”Garzón explained. (Read the full interview with Baltasar Garzón)
The truth is that the defense of the questioned businessman hopes that with this appointment the State of Cape Verde will respect Saab’s immunity, now as the representative of the Venezuelan government before the African Union. According Time, Cape Verde and the United States are already preparing a response to Venezuela’s new strategy to protect the Barranquilla and prevent his extradition to the North American country at all costs.
