Femi Falana reiterates call for Cape Verde to immediately release Alex Saab

Femi Falana, one of the lead counsels representing Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab has reiterated his call on Cape Verde's government to release him and stop processes to extradite him to the US.

He said in a statement that recent comments by Cape Verde's Attorney General, Luís José Landim makes it imperative that Mr. Saab be released.

Mr. Landim told pressmen in Cape Verde last week that the extradition process for Mr. Saab may have political consequences.

“From the beginning, we have always said that we apply the laws of Cape Verde and the Constitution of the Republic, and not laws that one wants to impose from outside... we apply what we understand to be applicable law. Other consequences will be political, perhaps, but it is no longer up to me to answer that question. If there are other consequences, I'm sure the State will know how to react because I believe we are acting well," the PGR is reported to have said according to Noticiasdonorte.

Falana said this statement confirms his views which he has expressed many times in the past that the whole process was a political tool being used against his client.

He said, "the public confession by the Prosecutor General on Thursday last week that the case against Alex Saab is indeed routed in political expediency is to be welcomed, however, it has considerable consequences."

Mr. Falana said he was happy about the PGR's comment and expects that being the one mainly behind the process, he would duly take the necessary step to stop the process.

He noted that it was his firm belief that all that has been done to Alex Saab is just a political objective for some external forces.

“From the outset, both in Cape Verde and in the ECOWAS Court of Justice, my colleagues and I, as well as the authorities of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela have stressed that the arrest and detention of H.E. Alex Saab by Cape Verde at the behest of the United States is based solely on the pursuit of extraterritorial judicial overreach to achieve a political policy objective. In this case, that means to satiate the pursuit of the illegal policy of regime change in Venezuela by the United States, in violation with the United Nations Charter and international law," he said.

Falana further said the recent comment and the announcement of a closure of a 3-year investigation by authorities in Switzerland on alleged money laundering claims against Mr. Saab as well as other developments concerning the case are all pointing to the fact that Mr. Saab is being treated unjustly but was confident that "the ship of justice is slowly but surely turning in favour of H.E. Alex Saab.”

Alex Saab has been in custody in Cape Verde since June 2020 when he was arrested en route to Iran on a diplomatic mission for Venezuela. Cape Verde is trying to extradite him to the US at the request of that country but Mr. Saab's lawyers have been fighting the process which they deem illegal.