Maduro ally claims diplomatic status to avoid US charges

MIAMI (AP):

An attorney for a businessman enriched by Venezuela’s government argued in federal court Wednesday that his client’s continued detention on corruption charges sets a dangerous precedent that could endanger the free movement of US officials around the world.

The hearing held before an appeals panel in Miami centred around the politically thorny issue of whether Alex Saab is a Venezuelan diplomat and entitled to immunity from prosecution under US law and numerous international treaties.

Saab’s attorneys have argued that he was travelling to Iran as a duly appointed special envoy of President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government when he was arrested on a US warrant nearly two years ago in Cape Verde during a refuelling stop. They’ve produced letters to Iran’s supreme leader by Maduro’s foreign minister and a diplomatic note from Iran’s Embassy in Caracas backing their claim.

But prosecutors have cast doubt on the authenticity of those documents and point out that the State Department has never accepted Saab’s supposed status as diplomat. Indeed, in 2019, the US recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, although more recently the Biden administration has taken steps to engage with Maduro, who has clung to power in the face of severe US oil sanctions.

“This is a ruse set up by a rogue nation to evade criminal prosecution,” Jeremy Sanders, an attorney with the Justice Department in Washington, said during the hearing.

Saab’s attorney, David Rivkin, rejected that argument as a “canard” and an “utterly dangerous” precedent that undermines the very essence of international diplomacy. He said even officials from states unfriendly to the US, such as Venezuela, North Korea and Iran, have the right to move freely among third countries in the pursuit of goals tasked by their governments.

“More than just the fate of one man is at stake here,” said Rivkin.

The three judge panel gave no clear indication of whether it will decide Saab’s diplomatic status now or allow the lower court to sort through the opposing claims and issue its findings first.

S. officials maintain that Saab, who was not present for Wednesday’s hearing, reaped huge windfall profits from dodgy contracts to import food while millions in the South American nation starved. He was indicted in Miami in 2019 on money laundering charges connected to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $350 million from a low-income housing project for the Venezuelan government.

Maduro’s officials consider Saab a “kidnapping” victim and have tried to rally popular support in Venezuela to demand his freedom. At the time of his arrest, they said he was on a humanitarian mission to Iran to negotiate the purchase of food, which has become more difficult to import as S. sanctions have cut off Venezuela’s ties to the western financial system, exacerbating an economic collapse marked by years of hyperinflation, electricity blackouts and widespread shortages.