Poster of the documentary Alex Saab, A Kidnapped Diplomat. Photo: Alex Saab Foundation.
The documentary Alex Saab, A Kidnapped Diplomat, directed by Venezuelan journalist and documentary filmmaker Karen Méndez, which tells the truth about the illegal detention of Venezuelan ambassador Alex Saab, first in Cape Verde and since October 2021 in the United States, premiered on Friday, September 16.
“For years, opinion experts on media have lied about Alex Saab, and they hide the truth that he brought food, medicine and fuel to Venezuela in the midst of the total blockade by the US,” Méndez wrote on Twitter. “It is time to listen to lawyers, experts and family members to understand the story of the first diplomat to be kidnapped in the history of the world.”
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Durante años,opinadores han mentido sobre Alex Saab y ocultan que él llevó alimentos, medicinas y gasolina a Venezuela en pleno bloqueo d EEUU. Es hora d escuchar a abogados,expertos y familiares para entender la historia dl primer diplomático secuestrado en la historia del mundo https://t.co/XWEgecyXYw
— Karen Méndez (@Karenmendezl) September 7, 2022
Saab’s wife and president of the Free Alex Saab Movement, Camilla Fabri Saab, offers her testimony in the documentary. She stated that the sanctions have affected Venezuelans in different ways, and she added that the illegal detention of the diplomat took place at the “most terrible point of the attack” against Venezuela.
The documentary was broadcast by the Venezuelan state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) at 7:30 p.m. Venezuela time, while the multi-state channel Telesur broadcast it an hour and a half later, at 9:00 p.m.
Humanitarian diplomat
Alex Nain Saab Morán received his diplomatic accreditation from the Venezuelan government as Special Envoy of Venezuela to the Islamic Republic of Iran since April 9, 2018, with responsibility to execute humanitarian missions before other governments and ensure the arrival of food, medicine and fuel to Venezuela.
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On June 12, 2020, while traveling to Iran on a humanitarian mission, he was illegally detained in Cape Verde, despite carrying with him the credential letters verifying him as a diplomatic official.
Various international organizations and courts condemned Saab’s arbitrary detention, but the authorities of Cape Verde ignored these condemnations and even rulings by the Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and hastily delivered the Venezuelan diplomat to the US on October 16, 2021, in violation of due process. Since then, Saab remains kidnapped in the United States and subjected to a trial without evidence of a crime, in a clear extraterritorial application of US laws.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
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