Femi Falana Calls For Immediate Release Of Alex Saab, Says extradition processes Politically Motivated

A Nigerian human rights lawyer, Barr Femi Falana has condemned continued detention and the whole extradition processes of the Venezuela diplomat, Alex Saab by the Cape verdian authority, describing it as politically motivated.

Falana who is the lead ECOWAS counsel for Alex Saab, also called for the immediate release and termination of the extradition process to the US by Cape verdian authorities.

CityMirrorNews recalls that Alex Saab was arrest during a stop over on his way to Iran in June last year.

His arrest was based on the request of the Donald Trump led United States government over allegations of money laundering, a move the Venezuelan government faulted with claims that the businessman is its special envoy on a humanitarian mission.

The Venezuelan government claimed that before his arrest, Saab had been on a mission to get food and medical supplies in Iran, stopping over in Cape Verde where he was arrested by security operatives.

In a 6-paragraph press statement signed by his firm, Falana & Falana Chambers on Moday, the human rights lawyer described the the whole extradition processes of the diplomat politically motivated by the Cape verdian authority.

He wrote that “indeed, new evidence confirm the pure political instrumentalization of the procedure of extradition”.

This is coming 3 days after the Attorney General of Cape Verde, José Landim also described the extradition process of Alex Saab as politically motivated and also admitted that Cape Verde may face consequences for defying the ECOWAS court ruling.

Falana added that politically motivated extradition are not “compatible with human rights law and international law, such acknowledgement by the Prosecutor General confirm not only the illegitimate and illegal nature of the extradition procedure, but also, once again, the arbitrary nature of the detention of diplomat Alex Saab”.

“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” Falana stated.

The Saab defence counsel also besieged President Joseph Biden of US and Cape Verdean authorities to allow the rule of law to take its course over the matter.

“Once again we call on President Biden so that the rule of law and human rights take precedence in this case over politicization and arbitrariness. We call on the political authorities in Cape Verde to release Ambassador Alex Saab without any further delay.”

Cape Verde Could Face Political Consequences For Disobeying ECOWAS Court Ruling—Country’s Attorney General

On the 3rd of June, José Landim, the Attorney General of Cape Verde described the extradition process of Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab as politically motivated.

According to Platform Times, the Attorney General, whose office is responsible for executing the decision of the Government of Cape Verde to extradite Alex Saab to the United States, was among the country’s political office holders initially fronting the legal case against Saab.

In a document published by Premium Times in January 2021, Landim had registered that the country is not in agreement with the body on the supplementary protocol on the ECOWAS court that empowers the code to entertain human right ramifications.

But, Landim in a latest comment back-tracked, as he highlighted possible political consequences for Cape Verde.

It could be recalled that the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECCJ) ruling on Alex Saab’s case, on 15 March, said the arrest of the diplomat was illegal, having been carried out without an appropriate Interpol Red Notice or arrest warrant.

It ordered Cape Verde to immediately release Saab, terminate extradition processes, and pay him $200,000 by way of compensation.

Aside from the ECOWAS judgement, the Geneva prosecutor’s office has also dropped the money laundering charges initially levelled against him.

In early 2018, the Geneva Public Prosecutor began an investigation into alleged money laundering by Alex Saab.

The investigation has now been terminated after three years with the Geneva Public Prosecutor concluding that the charges against Saab lack sufficient evidence to nail him on the count of money laundering “…there is no additional element to continue the investigation on the count of Money Laundering…”. It was submitted that Alex Saab’s legal costs in relation to the investigation be compensated