Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat, illegally detained in Cape Verde since June last year, at the request of the United States, "is still being held under an oppressive regime of house arrest, without the medical attention he urgently needs," denounces the official's Venezuelan legal team.
Cape Verde continues to violate the court order to transfer, for health reasons, the diplomat, kidnapped since June 2020 on the island of Sal, according to a press release from Alex Saab's defense team.
The Barlovento Court, on the northern island of San Vicente, gave permission on August 31 “because his health is deteriorating to the point of seriously worrying us and his doctors,” said Cape Verdean lawyer José Manuel Pinto Monteiro in a statement late on Wednesday.
However, the authorities of the West African island country have not carried out the evacuation of Saab from the also northern island of Sal to the southern island of Santiago, where Praia is located and can have access to specialized medical care.
A "cruel and sadistic" behavior
"It is clear that those who are guarding Alex Saab have been told that they must do whatever it takes to delay his transfer to Praia and continue with a routine of cruel and sadistic behavior with the aim of physically and mentally breaking him," said the lawyer. .
In a video published, also by the legal team, doctor Karol Sikora, professor of oncology at Imperial College London, assured that the treatment Saab receives is "outrageous" given the deterioration of his health, as he has suffered "cancer of stomach ”, among other ailments, and“ almost does not receive medical attention ”.
"He should be transferred to Praia, where he can get decent medical care," Sikora said.
On December 2, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (Cedeao), a block of countries to which Cape Verde belongs, also ruled that he should be granted unrestricted access to specialist doctors of his choice, despite to the reluctance of the Cape Verdean authorities.
Likewise, the UN Human Rights Committee ordered last June that specialized medical care be provided for diplomat Alex Saab.
Judicial setback
Three weeks ago, the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde, the country's highest court, declared the appeal filed for the unconstitutionality of the illegal detention of Alex Saab "inadmissible". For its part, the team of lawyers announced that they would request clarifications from the high court, which upheld the constitutionality of an illegal act.
Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab was arrested on June 12, 2020 when his plane stopped to refuel at the Amílcar Cabral International Airport on the island of Sal, thus responding to a request from the United States through Interpol for alleged money laundering crimes. of money, however the defense proved that the alert, also wrong, was issued after the illegal arrest.
After his illegal detention, Venezuela stressed that Saab is a Venezuelan citizen and an "agent" of the Government, who was "in transit" in Cape Verde, for which his lawyers maintain that "he had the right to personal inviolability as a special envoy of Venezuela".
The name of the 49-year-old Venezuelan diplomat appeared in the media when former prosecutor Luisa Ortega Díaz, a fugitive from justice, accused him in 2017 of being a front man for President Nicolás Maduro, an accusation that he has failed to prove in four years.
