Lawyers lament poor ‘house arrest conditions’ for Alex Saab
Counsel for businessman Alex Saab have expressed concern over the treatment being meted out to their client under house arrest in Cape Verde.
Although the team expressed partial satisfaction in Cape Verde’s compliance to a court order to release Mr. Saab from prison and put under house arrest, they have expressed dissatisfaction with the many conditions tied to the situation.
In an open letter, lawyers, led by Pinto Monteiro said, the present conditions are “completely irregular” and negatively impacting their client’s health.
They said the Venezuelan diplomat is surrounded by many heavily armed soldiers and police officers and is not allowed to have privileged conversations with his lawyers.
Among other things, they said requests to have him receive medical attention have also gone unanswered.
Read the full letter below:
Regarding house arrest conditions
4 February, 2021; Island of Sal, Cape Verde
On 25 January, 2021, Ambassador and Special Envoy Alex Saab was transferred from the Sal prison where he was being held, to a location where he has been placed under house arrest.
The Ambassador’s legal team wishes to place on record that the conditions of his house arrest are completely irregular, and they continue to directly affect his health and his right to defense and are significantly worse than those afforded in the past to convicted drug traffickers in Cape Verde.
The Ambassador is surrounded by soldiers and police who live next door and monitor him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These soldiers carry machine guns even when delivering his meals.
With respect to his ability to communicate with his lawyers and family the conditions are more restricted than Cape Verde has historically made available to convicted criminals. Ambassador Saab is prohibited from accessing the Internet, cannot write to his family without the correspondence being read by the police and as for his right to privileged conversations with his lawyers these can only take place with drones flying overhead if they step outside into the yard. The only telephone that he can use is one belonging to the police, who must be present during the two hours of permitted use, to monitor the Ambassador’s conversations. To date, requests to be examined by specialist doctors of his choice have gone unanswered.
All of this is not only in direct defiance of the 2 December 2020 binding unanimous order of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, but flies against all accepted standards of house arrest for an unconvicted person and certainly unacceptable for a diplomatic agent. This is leaving aside the fact that as an Ambassador and Special Envoy Alex Saab cannot be held in any form of restrictive custody.