Venezuelan diplomat, Mr. Alex Saab Moran has admonished the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to ensure that justice is not only done but must be seen to be done.
Alex Saab is challenging a decision by a U.S. District Judge in Miami refusing to consider his status as a diplomat immune from U.S. proceedings unless and until he personally appears in the United States.
His lawyers say he was unlawfully detained at the request of U.S. law enforcement authorities, in Cabo Verde, where his aircraft had stopped to refuel while traveling from his country Venezuela to Iran on a diplomatic mission in June 2020.
The ECOWAS Court of Justice ordered Cape Verde to immediate release the Venezuelan diplomat from custody and proceeded to quash extradition processes which were initiated in the island country allegedly on the orders of the United States of America for him to be extradited to the USA for trial.
The orders were complied with upon a reaffirmation of its judgement following an appeal by the government of Cape Verde through its Prosecutor General, Jose Landim.
Mr Saab is opposing his extradition to the United States, saying he is a diplomat on mission entitled to immunity. He accordingly appealed the District Judge’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
In an emotional letter to the Honorable Constitutional Judges dated 12th August 2021, Alex Saab charged the Judges to render justice in the matter of inhumanity, indignity and ill-will that he has been subjected to for over a year.
“Each actor in today’s Judicial Moment must play the role assigned to him/her. You, the Guardians of the Constitutional Court are being asked to render justice. Your “judicial voice” will be decisive for justice to not only be done but to be seen to be done. Your Judicial Voice must follow judicial rituals that are far from trivial and that make this Judicial Moment, your Judicial Voice and your Judicial Authority sacred. Judicial Authority, however, to be declared and accepted as sacred, must be understood by all the actors,” he stated.
He argues that Cabo Verde authorities were more interested in meeting the needs of the United States than worrying about his legal rights, therefore sacrificing his human dignity for political expediency.
Read Alex Saab’s letter below:
12 August 2021
Honourable Justices of the Constitutional Court.
I had hoped that finally I would have my day in court and have the opportunity to express in my own voice, in my own words the inhumanity and indignity, the ill will and ill treatment which I have been subjected to for more than a year. Regrettably, you have not afforded me this opportunity, so I have asked Dr Jose Manuel Pinto Monteiro to read this short statement on my behalf.
“Today it is 428 days since I was arrested on the Island of Sal.
Much has been written since then about who I am, what I was doing at the time of my arrest, my status as a Special Envoy, the many procedural irregularities which occurred because the local police, the Prosecutor General and Interpol were more interested in meeting the needs of the United States than worrying about my legal rights and how Cabo Verde has been thrust into the middle of an ongoing political battle between my home country, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and the United States.
At times it has felt as if I have been waiting for Samuel Beckett’s Godot, in some theatre of the absurd but we have now reached this “judicial moment” under your watch as Guardians of the Constitution. A Judicial Moment that must be based on the rule of law, natural justice, the Constitution of Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde’s obligations under international law and nothing else.
Of course, I am not naïve enough to believe that political considerations have not played a significant part in my detention and, as the statement from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 12 August strongly highlights “…to extradite a third-country diplomat may have a negative impact on international raltions and may have a “boomerang effect” on any country…as well as other states involved in dangerous games with international law.”
Today, therefore in this hallowed chamber it is the Law, it must be the Law – Lex, Namos, Qanun according to the ancient civilisations – which must be your only point of reference.
Each actor in today’s Judicial Moment must play the role assigned to him/her. You, the Guardians of the Constitutional Court are being asked to render justice. Your “judicial voice” will be decisive for justice to not only be done but to be seen to be done. Your Judicial Voice must follow judicial rituals that are far from trivial and that make this Judicial Moment, your Judicial Voice and your Judicial Authority sacred. Judicial Authority, however, to be declared and accepted as sacred, must be understood by all the actors.
I am, like any human would be, torn by complex and contrasting feelings mixing dread and hope because this Judicial Moment is about my freedom, my dignity and my very life. But with the greatest of respect, it is not only my fate that is to be decided, as the future of Cabo Verde, too, hangs in the balance. I can hope and pray that our fates are not both sacrificed on the altar of political expediency .
H.E. Alex Saab
