Tarek William Saab, Attorney General of Venezuela, rated this Thursday of “victory for the Venezuelan democratic institutions” the memorandum of understanding signed with the International Criminal Court (ICC). The official specified that the investigation promoted by that body is an opportunity that can open the doors for a positive rapprochement between the ICC and the Venezuelan justice, in order to guarantee a fair procedure for the country.
However, Saab assured that the preliminary examination phase by that court was full of irregularities, since the country was not previously informed about the complaints against it, which were never presented to any national body and were made anonymously. , without file or support. All that, he said, could be described as “extreme legal weakness“.
“This visit [del actual fiscal de la CPI, Karim Khan] breaks a long silence and at the same time I would say noisy, because the silence was biased in favor of a unilateral action by the previous prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who never responded to a single report of the eight documents, more than 3,000 pages, delivered to his office, “Saab said in statements to MRT.
He also reported that during his tenure, 196 members of the Venezuelan security forces have been convicted of human rights violations, including implications in murders that occurred during the violent protests of 2017, which are at the center of the current accusations against Venezuela before the international court. As he specified, only 19% of the cases of violence during these protests are attributable to the country’s authorities.
“It was an insurrectionary action, which unfortunately occurred and that we do not excuse at all. I do not excuse that due to that fact, for example, abuses, police excesses, human rights violations, have been committed, but the context is that. We cannot say that it was in times of peace, no: unfortunately, it was in the middle of an embryo of civil war, during the months of April, May, June and July 2017, “said Saab. To all this he added that Venezuela has at hand all the information, precise and ready, to expedite the investigation, and that after this the image of the State Venezuelan will emerge stronger.
