The African Bar Association has welcomed the directive of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) to Cape Verde with regards to the businessman’s planned extradition.
The group of African lawyers say the directive sits perfectly with their previous calls for the release of Mr. Saab who has been in detention in Cape Verde since June 2020.
In a statement on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, the association said it is embarrassed that Cape Verde has not yielded to any of the decisions of the ECOWAS court and find it to be a serious threat to the rule of law.
“The decision of the United Nations Human Rights Committee that Mr Saab should not be extradited to the United States and should be released is in tandem with the various calls of the African Bar Association over the past several months as the decision of Cape Verde to detain Ambassador Saab since 2020 was illegal and unjustified from the very beginning,” it said.
The Association is sad and very embarrassed that Cape Verde an African State continues to act illegally despite the various decisions and Rulings of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice ordering the release and compensation of the diplomat. We regard this as a serious threat to the Rule of Law and a bad example for International Law and Order in Africa.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee earlier this month directed Cape Verde to suspend activities towards the extradition of Mr. Saab to the US to face money laundering charges.
The Committee gave Cape Verde the opportunity to respond to the issues to enable it take a final decision.
Cape Verde is yet to comply with this new decision as its president, Jorge Fonseca stated in a interview that it is up to the country’s court to decide whether or not to act on the decision.
The African Bar Association said the development is sad an embarrassing.
“The Association is sad and very embarrassed that Cape Verde an African State continues to act illegally despite the various decisions and Rulings of the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice ordering the release and compensation of the diplomat. We regard this as a serious threat to the Rule of Law and a bad example for International Law and Order in Africa.”
It said Cape Verde cannot claim to be a democracy that is an active member of the various international bodies yet fail to comply with directives and decisions taken by those bodies.
It reiterated its call on the leaders of ECOWAS to push Cape Verde to abide by the decisions of the ECOWAS court to among release Alex Saab and stop extradition processes against him since “Mr Saab has not been found guilty of any crime.”
Hannibal Uwaifo, the President of the association who signed the statement said they are making efforts to visit Cape Verde to assess the situation.
