Alex Saab’s defense team responds to Cape Verde President on reasons for continued detention

Lawyers of Alex Saab have described comments by Cape Verde President Jorge Carlos Fonseca on the continued detention of their client as inaccurate, stressing that the embattled Columbian businessman “was arrested despite irrefutable evidence demonstrating his status as a Special Envoy engaged on a humanitarian special mission”.

Jorge Carlos Fonseca is quoted to have said in Cidade da Praia that it is absurd for some persons to be demanding the release of Mr. Saab, citing the independence of the courts.

“I would not like to comment on that. That tells me very little. The people who ask for this themselves are lawyers and should know that there is one basic thing that any first-year law student knows. Saying the law is a task for the judges. Arresting or releasing is a materially jurisdictional task,” he said.

“This is against nature. It is absurd, in terms of the functioning of a Democratic Rule of Law, that Cape Verde is. Cape Verde is a country, which is a reference from the point of view of the quality of Democracy, of the Rule of Law, so we are perfectly at ease from the point of view of complying with these rules,” Jorge Carlos Fonseca stressed.

His comment was a reaction to a petition to the ECOWAS Court by Saab’s defense team over Cape Verde’s decision not to comply with the Court’s ruling on the detention of the businessman.

The ECOWAS court had on March 15 ruled that the detention was inappropriate as Cape Verde had no arrest warrant nor a Red notice from Interpol for the arrest of the businessman.

The court ordered the immediate release of Alex Saab and asked them to pay $200,000 to the business as compensation. Cape Verde was also asked to stop processes that would lead to the extradition of Alex Saab to the US.

On March 16, however, the Supreme Court of Cape Verde gave a counter ruling, saying Saab should be extradited.

In its ruling, it dismissed many of the averments of Alex Saab's defence team, amongst them being the fact that he was a special envoy of the government of Venezuela and that his arrest was a violation of that status – a development which triggered the petition including a request that ECOWAS withholds its support to Cape Verde and a call for the country to be stripped of its privileges of presenting candidates for top positions within the ECOWAS as well as its participation in activities in the Community.

Mr. Saab, a Colombian businessman linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, was arrested by police in Cape Verde in June last year on his way to Iran aboard a private jet.

The 49-year-old was arrested on the orders of the U.S on allegations of corruption. The U.S wanted him extradited to face charges of corruption, but Venezuela took a stance against that decision as Mr. Saab’s lawyers fought to stop the process.