Poster in a Caracas street demands freedom for Alex Saab, Velezuelan diplomat facing a lawfare by the US government. File photo.
On Friday, October 14, the legal defense of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab presented before the Florida Court evidence that demonstrates that the United States knew about his diplomatic status and his functions as special diplomatic envoy of Venezuela.
Saab’s defense submitted a number of important documents which show that the US governmental institutions were aware of his status as special envoy before pressuring the authorities of Cape Verde to kidnap him on June 12, 2020.
Among the evidence presented are two email conversations: one of them dated June 14, 2020, and the other one dated June 11, 2020.
ULTIMA HORA: Defensa del Diplomático Alex Saab presenta mociĂłn ante el Tribunal de Florida y muestra pruebas muy contundentes de que EEUU conocĂa su estatus diplomático y sus funciones como Enviado Especial y las preocupaciones del Gob de EEUU sobre su detenciĂłn ilegal. pic.twitter.com/7R5MYRaRGN
— Roi Lopez Rivas (@RoiLopezRivas) October 14, 2022
In the email dated June 14, Elliott Abrams, who at that time was the US special representative for Venezuela, communicated to Deputy Attorney General Bruce Swartz the thoughts and worries of the then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about carrying out his plans if Saab was appointed as special envoy before January 2019, as the US government recognized President Maduro before embarking on its GuaidĂł project.
Abrams wrote in the email, with the subject line “Saab”: “Sec Pompeo wonders if we can argue that his Venezuelan dip passport is illegal because awarded by criminals not President GuaidĂł, but if it had been issued before January 2019 we too recognized Maduro (and anyway CV probably follows the UN in recognizing Maduro).”
This shows that high-level authority figures in the Trump administration were plotting about how to abduct a diplomatic envoy of a foreign country who was on a mission to a third country.
“This evidence alone should lead the Court to reconsider its decision on Mr. Saab’s motion to oblige and order a thorough search and production of all relevant documents,” the defense commented on producing the document.
In the other email, the US State Department’s special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, informed Abrams of Saab’s trip to Iran to negotiate a bilateral agreement between Venezuela and the Islamic Republic.
US Hybrid War Against Venezuela Goes to Court: The Case of Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab
This email was copied to Swartz and Matt McInnis, deputy special representative for Iran.
Saab’s defense also introduced a limited motion to reconsider the order issued by that Court on September 15, in which it partially granted his request for the prosecution to present the qualified and unclassified documents that would prove that the United States had knowledge of his status as a special envoy of Venezuela.
The limited motion requests the Court to ask the prosecution to produce all documents of various categories related to Saab’s service as special envoy and the knowledge of US government personnel of his diplomatic status.
(RedRadioVE) by Ana PerdigĂłn
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/AF
