A US appeals court “denied” this Monday the appeal filed by the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saabconsidered the figurehead of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and left the decision on immunity in the hands of a court of first instance.
(Read: Saab’s new defeat: appeals court did not give him diplomatic status)
This is a new setback for Saab, who has been in jail in Miami since last October on a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
(He is interested in: the US describes Maduro’s trick as passing Álex Saab as a diplomat)
Accordingly, we refer the case to the district court to consider in the first instance whether Saab Morán is a foreign diplomat and immune from prosecution.
“The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the district court of southern Florida must decide, in the first instance, whether Saab Moran is a foreign diplomat and immune from prosecutionaccording to court documents.
The court, based in Atlanta, Georgia, recalled that Saab sought to annul his fugitive status and argued “that he is immune from prosecution because he is a foreign diplomat.”
However, he noted that “after careful review and with the benefit of oral argument” he is returning the case to the district court.
The appeal, filed by Saab in April 2021, when he was detained in Cape Verde, rejects that the accused was treated as a “fugitive”, mainly arguing that he enjoyed diplomatic immunity when he was arrested in the African island country.
In a document presented in 2021 in the court of appeals, Saab’s defense had urged to address the issue of these alleged official privileges.
He then requested that the accusation be dismissed and also pointed out that it is this court that should decide on the matter.
It stressed that “treating Saab as a fugitive would be tantamount to denying his immunity.” Saab, 50, was extradited to the US last October from Cape Verde, where he was arrested in 2020 following an international arrest warrant requested by US justice.
The businessman faces a charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering in a Miami courtof which he pleaded “not guilty” in November 2021 before Judge Alicia M. Otazo-Reyes.
Judge Robert N. Scola dismissed in 2021 seven charges of money laundering against the defendant as part of the extradition agreement with the Government of Cape Verde so that, in the event that he is found guilty, the sentence does not exceed what he would have had in that African country. It will be Scola who will have to pronounce on the status of Saab.
Saab faces a sentence of around 20 years if found guilty on the only charge that he has in the Miami court, a sentence that can be reduced if he makes a deal with the Prosecutor’s Office, which usually includes indictment of other people.
EFE
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