Alex Saab is a Colombian businessman
The association of lawyers in Africa, African Bar Association, is urging Cape Verde to comply with the recent ruling of the ECOWAS court in the controversial Alex Saab case.
It said the stance taken against the ruling of the court "is a call to anarchy" and puts ECOWAS in bad light.
It made this known in a statement signed by Osa Director, the Chairman of Media and Publicity Committee of the Association.
Chronicling some of the incidents that have surrounded the litigation between the defence team of the Venezuelan businessman and Cape Verde at the ECOWAS court since last year, the association said the development spells a "sour point in the history of the Judicial Pronouncements in West Africa."
Alex Saab who was arrested by Cape Verde en route to Iran on a diplomatic mission for Venezuela in June 2020 has been in the custody in the island country with his lawyers challenging efforts to extradite him to the US to face charges of corruption there.
His lawyers in their case filed at the ECOWAS court first succeeded in efforts to get the court to order for Mr. Saab to be moved from prison and kept under house arrest.
Cape Verde complied with that ruling a few days later amidst complaints from the lawyers that some government officials were deliberating frustrating the process.
The ECOWAS court in its ruling on the substantive matter ordered Cape Verde to compensate the businessman with $200,000 and release him from prison because his arrest was "arbitrary."
It also ordered Cape Verde to cease all processes to extradite Mr. Saab to the US.
A day after the ruling, the Cape Verde Supreme Court also ruled that Mr. Saab be extradited.
The development has seen the defence team of the businessman write to various officials including the president of Cape Verde urging them to comply with the ruling.
While that is yet to be done, the African Bar Association says it is concerned by the posture of Cape Verde as it portrays ECOWAS in a bad light.
"It is the respectful view of the African Bar Association that wilful and unlawful disobedience of the Machinery of Justice in the Sub-region back-tracts Africa to the dark ages and does not portray the Sub-region in good light. It is also capable of destroying the Court and making it a laughing stock."
"Once faith is lost in the Court, this old long-standing respectable organization may be brought to disrepute especially in the eyes of Foreigners who may believe wrongly that our Justice System is unreliable," it said in the statement.
It further indicated that the development could set a bad precedent that will lead to chaos and make ECOWAS a laughing stock.
The African Bar Association, therefore, urged Cape Verde to "take the interest of ECOWAS and Africa to heart in order to prize the Rule of Law above all primordial sentiments and obey the ECOWAS Court Judgement of 15th March 2021 forthwith."
