This Wednesday, during the hearing to present the oral arguments before the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia, the Department of Justice limited itself to describing the official accreditation of Alex Saab as a diplomat carried out by the Venezuelan Government as “a ruse”. as confirmed by the document issued on April 9, 2018.
Resorting to assumptions, the US prosecutor’s office could not question the legality of this official document, limiting itself to classifying it as the action of a “rogue nation” to allegedly prevent the Special Envoy of Venezuela from facing charges in the United States, ignoring that said document dates from date of 2018 where there was no arrest warrant against Alex Saab and the Government of President Nicolás Maduro had the full recognition of the White House.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan diplomat’s defense highlighted the importance of avoiding the politicization of this appeal and strictly adhering to international conventions and treaties on diplomatic relations to which the United States is a signatory, a press release refers.
In their presentation of arguments, they maintained the need to view this case as transcendental when defining the effective functioning of world diplomacy, recalling that the dismissal by the United States judicial system of this appeal could have consequences even for the United States, whose Government has the largest number of diplomats and special envoys traveling the world.
They recalled that the immunity of a Special Envoy is obtained when there is accreditation from an issuing State and receipt from a receiving State, documentation that exists around Alex Saab and that is in the public domain.
They stressed that the evidence of the legality of the diplomatic status of the Special Envoy of Venezuela is that the authorities of Cape Verde refrained from questioning the diplomat’s immunity from the moment of his illegal detention in this territory in compliance with a request from the United States. .
Likewise, they were emphatic in pointing out that “at no time has Alex Saab waived his immunity”, so his status must be respected and his immediate release declared, as well as the dismissal of the case that the justice of the North American nation is carrying out under the accusation of alleged “conspiracy to launder” in a court in Miami, Florida.
During this hearing, which lasted longer than expected, the court recognized that this is a unique case, accepting that there is direct jurisprudence to rely on, opening the door to the possibility of a decision on this case issued by this court. .
