Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat who has been illegally detained in Cape Verde since June last year at the request of the United States, "continues to be held under an oppressive regime of house arrest, without the medical care he urgently needs," denounces the Venezuelan official's 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 Saint Vincent, granted permission on August 31 "because his health is deteriorating to the point of serious concern for 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 guarding Alex Saab have been told that they must do whatever it takes to delay his transfer to Praia and continue a routine of cruel and sadistic behaviour aimed at breaking him physically and mentally," the lawyer said.
In a video published by the legal team, Dr. Karol Sikora, professor of oncology at Imperial College London, said that the treatment Saab receives is "outrageous" given the deterioration of his health, as he has suffered from "stomach cancer," among other ailments, and "he receives almost no 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 judicial authority, declared the appeal filed on the unconstitutionality of the illegal detention of Alex Saab "inadmissible." For its part, the team of lawyers announced that they would ask the high court for clarification, 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.
Following his illegal arrest, Venezuela stressed that Saab is a Venezuelan citizen and an "agent" of the government, who was "in transit" in Cape Verde, so 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.
