- International law lawyer Simón Gómez explained that there must be an arrest in a country that is part of the Rome Statute of the ICC
The arrest warrants against the presidents of Argentina, Javier Milei, and Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, that the Justice of their respective countries has issued mutually have little chance of succeeding in the short term. However, according to experts, the measure against the Venezuelan president may serve as “anticipation” as it is based on alleged crimes against humanity.
“For them to prosper, the person must be made available to the Argentine courts. For that there has to be an arrest, so it is an anticipation of situations that are future and unknown,” international law lawyer Simón Gómez explained to the EFE news agency.
He specified that an eventual arrest against Maduro at this time “is not viable”, unless the president traveled to a third country that is part of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), due to the cooperation agreement between the Prosecutor’s Office. of the high court and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), signed in December 2004.
“The extradition that has been requested from the Venezuelan authorities is based on an arrest warrant originating from an Argentine Federal Court, which has been communicated to Interpol. So a third State in which he was located (part of the Rome Statute) would be obliged to hand that person over to the jurisdiction,” the expert said.
The accusation against Maduro
The decision was adopted by the Federal Chamber of the City of Buenos Aires in a case opened in early 2023, for a complaint against Maduro presented by the Argentine Forum for the Defense of Democracy (FADD). This accusation is based on the principle of universal justice, which allows countries to prosecute serious crimes against human rights, regardless of where they were committed.
In 2020, the United States filed “narcoterrorism” charges against Maduro and offered $15 million for any information leading to his capture. Subsequently, US officials visited Venezuela to talk with the president about various political issues of mutual interest.
The president of the FADD, Waldo Wolff, said at a press conference that the arrests of Venezuelan officials “will not” be made “immediately and the possibilities today are remote, but a path is beginning to be outlined.”
Meanwhile, lawyer Simón Gómez pointed out that the decision of the Argentine court is “completely related” to the investigation by the ICC Prosecutor’s Office into Venezuela, despite the fact that the international organization is not investigating, at the moment, any Venezuelan official, but rather that their investigations focus on finding out if crimes against humanity were committed in the country.
The arrest warrant against Milei
The arrest warrant against President Milei – the lawyer explained – is not likely to succeed because in this case these are not crimes that exempt the immunity of a head of state.
“Venezuela can request extradition in violation, obviously, of international law, but that order will be disregarded by both the Argentine courts and Interpol,” he added.
The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office asked Interpol for a “red alert” against Mile for aggravated robbery and six other crimes related to the Venezuelan-Iranian plane that was held in Buenos Aires and that was sent to the United States in February 2024.
“The request has already been sent, let’s wait to see how Interpol is going to act, based on damage done that is common crime, that is transnational crime, that violates conventions against organized crime,” said the Venezuelan attorney general, Tarek William. Saab, on September 24.
Lawyer Simón Gómez maintained that the main thing in this case is “the unfoundedness of the accusation,” because the situation with the Venezuelan-Iranian plane is not attributable to the Executive branch, but to the Judiciary.
With information from EFE.
Related news
#arrest #warrants #Milei #Maduro #viable
2024-10-02 11:50:20
