Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab (right) listening to former far-right candidate legal advisor José Vicente Haro (left) on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. Photo: X/@PedroKonductaz.
The letter that has been delivered by former far-right presidential candidate Edmundo González has been determined as “totally out of place” to “justify and at the same time declare himself above the law, the authority, the state,” according to the attorney general of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab.
This Thursday, September 5, in a press conference regarding the meeting he held with the lawyer Vicente Haro, legal representative of González, Saab explained that the former candidate “attempts to explain but contradicts himself” as to why he did not appear at any of the three summons issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The attorney general further pointed out that González, by not attending the summons issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, was considering himself to be above the rest of the citizens of Venezuela and above the rule of law.
The former candidate is in “contumacy and the arrest warrant is in force,” the prosecutor stated in response to a journalist’s question, specifying that it is necessary for González to attend and answer the questions asked of him in relation to the summon.
Attorney José Vicente Haro said that he advised his client and urged him to attend the summons made by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. According to Haro, the former presidential candidate was supposedly willing, but “people outside the legal team did not allow him to do so, they pressured him not to come.”
He said that González also wanted to go to the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), but “extremist people who have used him without restraint told him not to go.”
“The country’s institutions are named in the letter, but he must also engage with them in practice,” Saab said.
Saab added that the legal representative told him that he would take all the necessary steps to ensure that González responds to the summons and assumes responsibility. “We have been sufficiently clear about everything that happened,” he said.
About the letter sent by González
According to the attorney general, the letter sent explaining the reasons for his absence sets a negative precedent, since “there is a sector that believes itself above the law and seeks to place itself above the rest of Venezuelan citizens.”
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office has the power, as does the Attorney General, to initiate an investigation and, based on that, interview the people they consider to provide information, either as a witness or as an indictee,” Saab noted, and added regarding the nature of González’s legal advice, “where they graduated, in which college they studied law.”
Saab said that the institution he presides has the power to summon any Venezuelan and that whoever wrote the letter “is acting in harm, it is an aggravating factor, since he declares himself as a judge, does his own justice, and finally rules that he is innocent. The most serious thing: he says that he will continue to be in contempt.”
“In the letter, he says that he has nothing to do with that website,” he said, referring to resultadosconvzla.com, the website used by the opposition to distribute the alleged voting records used by González and the far-right opposition to claim fraud in the July 28 presidential elections. “Oh, because he knows that that website is a scam!” said the attorney general, asking, “So, why did he distribute it? Why did he publish it? That is why they now say that people should not talk about the voting records.”
Saab said that the summons were made based on what is established in the Constitution and the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure (COPP). “We told them this at the meeting, and we told him that, by refusing to attend, they are obstructing an investigation.”
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He recalled that González had spread the information about the website on social media platforms “outside the rule of law, since it gave fraudulent results.”
Saab added that there was never an agreement regarding “visiting the home” of the former candidate’s wife, since that possibility “never existed” nor was there the possibility of “investigating the wife of Edmundo González,” as this idea has been used by the Venezuelan far-right opposition to play under the pretense of being the victim.
The attorney general said that he believes that it is time to heal wounds, to stop impunity, to promote citizen coexistence, so that “Venezuela emerges stronger.”
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
