Live
Audio Only
According to Gberi-be Ouattara, the Vice President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Cape Verdean government must immediately liberate detained Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab.
A video released by German media agency DW asserts that the Cape Verdean government has violated international law, diplomatic immunities and human rights through the arbitrary arrest and detention of Saab on his stop over from Iran en route to Venezuela in July 2020.
RELATED:
The Limits of US Power: Alex Saab, Afghanistan, and Venezuela
The video production declares that the West African government, by not following the regional body's recommendations, took justice into its own hands by torturing, humiliating and denying medical treatment to a government representative on a humanitarian mission.
Outtara stated that it's "unfortunate" that the ECOWAS has learned that the Cape Verdean government decided to ignore the legal decision of the integration body, of which Cape Verde is a full member. He clarifies that Saab has committed no crime in the territory of the West African country.
The video continues to assure that the diplomat Saab has been wrongly treated, and that the Cape Verdean government's collusion with the United States is what makes the Venezuelan people continually suffer.
Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat who has been illegally detained in Cape Verde since June 2020, under US orders, is being denied medical attention by authorities in Cape Verde, who are trying to extradite him to Washington for a political show trialhttps://t.co/HYT52R8NR2
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 5, 2021
Likewise, according to Sayma Syrenius Cephas, the Chief Prosecutor of the Republic of Liberia, a country which he asserts is a model for judicial independence since 1847, the ECOWAS decision on Saab issued in March 2021 should take precedence over the Cape Verde constituional court's ruling.
Syrenius said that ECOWAS officials could proceed to Cape Verde with a writ of execution, which they could deliver to the sherriff or marshall of the Cape Verdean prison where Saab his held, demanding a time frame within which Saab would be released.
Similarly, the Liberian Chief Prosector said that the legal document could take the form of a writ of possession, in which the marshall would physically accompany Saab to the ECOWAS court in Abuja Nigeria, stating that if Cape Verde refuses, it would constitute a contempt of court, a globally recognized offense.
Thus, Syrenius concluded, the political implications should not be the foremost considerations, but rather than the enforcement and application of the ECOWAS court's ruling, which would lead to immediate liberation of the Venezuelan diplomat.
Newsletter
