Wikileaks lawyer Garzon to represent Maduro associate in U.S. extradition case
Former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon’s law firm said on
Tuesday it will represent a detained Venezuelan businessman close to President
Nicolas Maduro whom the United States is seeking to extradite from Cape Verde
on corruption charges.
Alex Saab was arrested in June when a plane he was traveling
on landed in the West African island nation. The United States last year
charged him with money laundering and sanctioned him for allegedly
orchestrating a corruption network that allowed him and Maduro to profit from a
state-run food subsidy program.
The U.S. Department of Justice said in June that Saab, a
Colombian who also has a Venezuelan passport, was arrested pursuant to an
Interpol red notice issued with respect to his indictment.
Garzon, who won fame with his attempt to extradite former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1990s, is also coordinating Wikileaks
founder Julian Assange’s defense to fight his extradition from Britain to the
United States.
In a statement Garzon’s Madrid-based law firm, ILOCAD, said
Saab’s arrest was an example of how the Trump administration was using legal
process to “pressure Venezuela on the level of international politics.”
ILOCAD said it would contact the United Nations and African
Union to demonstrate that “Mr Saab’s rights are being violated by this
extradition process.”
The U.S. government has imposed crippling sanctions on
Venezuela’s vital oil sector to deprive the government of funds, and has
indicted Maduro and over a dozen other top officials for crimes including drug
trafficking and corruption.
In a statement in June, Venezuela’s foreign ministry called
Saab’s arrest a violation of international law and said he had been traveling
as an “agent” of the state on business to obtain humanitarian supplies to help
combat the coronavirus pandemic.
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