The US Attorney’s Office does not want to close the Saab case to the press and the public

The Prosecutor’s Office of EE.UU. He stressed this Monday that the court case for money laundering against the Colombian-Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab, alleged front man of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, is of “public interest” and therefore should not be closed to the press or the public.

In response to a motion by Saab’s defense, which asked to enforce the rules of not taking or publishing photos of its client obtained during the Zoom hearings, as happened on October 18, despite the fact that it is illegal, the Prosecutor’s Office said that “The Government has a general and primary affirmative duty to oppose the closure (to the public).”

In this sense, the Prosecutor’s Office stressed that a closure to the public would be “clearly essential for the interests of Justice”, which is not the case in this case.

He explained that there is no risk of carrying out “a fair trial”, nor “the substantial probability of imminent danger to the safety of the parties, witnesses or other persons”, nor that the course of the investigations will be seriously affected.

However, the Prosecutor’s Office said that it agrees with “the defendant Saab Morán that the Court must guarantee compliance with Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 53”, which prohibits the taking and dissemination of images obtained during hearings in the Southern District from Florida.

The prosecution noted that one option would be to allow access only through phone calls, as the Southern District of New York does.

For its part, in a letter sent today to Judge Robert N. Scola Jr., the US press agency AP urges access to the press, stating that the Saab case is “of enormous public interest” and the media and the public enjoy of the rights to this information enshrined in the First Amendment and other regulations.

In the letter, journalist Joshua Goodman reminded the judge that Saab is allegedly “the brain of a vast network of corruption.”

He added that this plot has allowed President Maduro’s inner circle, and even members of his own family, “to benefit significantly from the overvaluation of state contracts and to evade US economic sanctions.”

Saab faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in a Miami court after Judge Scola dismissed seven counts of money laundering against the defendant, who was extradited from Cape Verde, on October 16. .

The reduction of charges was part of the extradition agreement with the Government of Cape Verde so that, in case he is found guilty, the sentence does not exceed the one he would have had in that African country.

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Saab, 49, faces a sentence of about 20 years if he is found guilty of the only charge he has in Miami court, a sentence that can be reduced if he makes a deal with the Prosecutor’s Office, which usually includes accusation of other accomplices.

In today’s document, the Prosecutor’s Office indicates that it is not aware that rule 53 was violated on November 1, during Saab’s second hearing.

However, at that meeting the media did not have access to Zoom, nor to the in-person audience, and also Saab, resigned that day to be present.

The Prosecutor’s Office also said that it leaves in the hands of the court Saab’s request to investigate the media that violated the norm, which are on a list presented by the defense to the court, many of them from the Venezuelan press.

At the next Saab hearing, which is scheduled for Monday, November 15, it is expected that Saab will plead “not guilty,” according to what his lawyer Henry Bell told Efe.

This hearing will also presumably be destined to the formal request for bail, which the prosecutor Kurt K. Lunkenheimer has already said he opposed as representing a “flight danger.”