WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th September, 2021) A Cape Verde high court's decision to effectively green-light Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab's extradition to the United States amounts to constitutional suicide, the defense team said in a statement to Sputnik.
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde, an island-nation off the West African coast, rejected the defense's appeal asking the court not to abide by the US request to extradite Saab over alleged Iran sanctions violations.
"This ruling is a major moment in the constitutional history of this tiny African state because it symbolizes the sacrificial death of the rule of law so dearly acquired by Cape Verdeans, in the service of purely political interests according to an agenda dictated by Washington," the statement said. "This is constitutional suicide!"
Last July, Cape Verde authorities arrested the Colombian-born businessman during a fuel stop based on a US extradition warrant while Saab was on a humanitarian mission to Iran as special envoy for the Venezuelan government.
Saab's defense insisted that the extradition of diplomat Saab to the United States was in violation of the Vienna Convention.
There is no bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and Cape Verde, Saab's defense team has said.
The defense team went on to say in the statement that the consequence of the ruling is to legitimize "the purely arbitrary arrest of a foreign diplomat, deprived of all rights and guarantees, at the hands of Cape Verdean police officers."
The Venezuelan government demanded that Cape Verde release Saab, stating that he was Caracas' special envoy to the African Union. According to Colombian media, Saab allegedly has information about secret agreements of the Venezuelan government with Turkey, Iran and Russia, which, according to the United States, affect US interests in the region.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the situation around Saab "outrageous." The ministry said that Washington, apparently, decided to "reach a new level", creating the precedent of a diplomat's extradition.
