Venezuela’s Special Envoy Alex Saab Morán, currently detained in a United States prison, served three years of illegal arrest in a case in which violations of international law and diplomatic conventions by North American courts stand out.
On June 12, 2020, Alex Saab was heading to the Islamic Republic of Iran as a diplomat of the Venezuelan government to negotiate medical supplies and food for the people of the South American nation, in the midst of the global pandemic crisis unleashed by the covid -19.
His plane stopped on the island of Sal in the African Cape Verde archipelago to refuel before continuing on its route. However, police officers in this country illegally detained him at the request of a supposed international red alert from Interpol, which was issued one day after the arrest.
Saab Morán, who was traveling with the credentials of Special Envoy granted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela in April 2018is currently facing judicial persecution, also known as ‘Lawfare’, for offering his experience as a businessman to the Government of President Nicolás Maduro and circumventing the Unilateral Coercive Measures imposed on the country’s economy and finances.
This Monday, 1,095 days after his kidnapping, Camilla Fabri Saab, the diplomat’s wife, said in an interview with RNV that the kidnapping of Alex Saab was the icing on the cake in the series of aggressions by the US empire against the country.
“I understood that the message was not only against Alex, but against the entire Venezuelan people. The US was denying the right to food to the people who were going through a very hard period with the pandemic and the sanctions. Alex risks everything to go on this mission to care for all the Venezuelan people,” said Fabri Saab, quoted by the media. FuserNews.
Dossier of the first and second kidnapping
On October 16, 2021, one day before the presidential elections were held in Cape Verde – where José María Neves was the winner – the Government of the African nation, chaired until then by the questioned president Jorge Carlos Fonseca, handed over Ambassador Saab to the US justice system
In June 2022, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper detailed the Donald Trump administration’s war against Venezuela in his book “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times.”
On Friday, December 9, 2022, Judge Scola set a dangerous precedent by not recognizing the diplomatic immunity of Venezuela’s Special Envoy to Iran.
On December 16, 2022, the National Assembly of Venezuela approved a Draft Agreement in defense of and respect for Alex Saab’s status as a diplomat.
On December 23, 2022, Robert Scola determined that the Venezuelan Special Envoy, Alex Saab, is not entitled to diplomatic immunity. That same day, the defense stated that it would appeal the decision and stated in a statement that “Alex Saab Morán is a special envoy who is the head of mission. As such, he is fully entitled to diplomatic immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
On January 26, 2023, the confession of former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in his book “Never give an inch: Fighting for America I love” went viral. that I love”), confirming that the White House knew about the functions of Alex Saab.
In February, the vice president of the Tunisian League for Human Rights, Najat Zemmouri, considered that the US trial against the Venezuelan diplomat is “political rather than civil” and that the official kidnapped in the North American nation deserves the Nobel Prize. peace.
In March 2023, the British oncologist, Karol Sikora, asked the United Nations (UN) to urgently guarantee medical attention to the Venezuelan diplomat.
Earlier this month, British artist and human rights activist Roger Waters sent a public message to US President Joe Biden: “The whole world knows that you are murdering Alex Saab.”
On March 16, 2023, the defense of the Venezuelan diplomat appealed before the 11th Circuit of Georgia, the ruling of a federal court in Miami that on December 23 denied him the right to diplomatic immunity.
humanitarian exchange
In recent months, the government of US President Joe Biden has reached prisoner exchange agreements for humanitarian reasons with some adverse countries. Particularly noteworthy was the release at the end of last year of the basketball player Brittney Griner by the Russian citizen Viktor Bout, detained in Russia and the US, respectively.
In this sense, the website The Grayzone published an article in December 2022 in the which ensures that the release of the Special Envoy of Venezuela will be through a “prisoner exchange” or through the recognition of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the US government.
