Tocorón Watch
Court declared Saab a fugitive after he failed to appear post-indictment
On August 26, 2019, Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. ordered, on his own initiative, that the case against Alex Saab and Álvaro Pulido Vargas be transferred to fugitive status, since neither defendant had made an initial appearance since being formally indicted on July 25, 2019.
- Court
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami) · case 1:19-cr-20450
- Judge
- Robert N. Scola Jr.
- Prosecution
- U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Florida
- Where it stands
- 2019 money-laundering case. Saab was extradited from Cape Verde in October 2021 and released in December 2023 in a prisoner swap with Venezuela; the charges were dismissed then.
What it means
The 'fugitive status' designation is a court bookkeeping step [an administrative case classification] showing the defendants were not in custody and had not appeared before the court. Saab was outside the United States at the time and would not be arrested until nearly a year later, in June 2020, in Cape Verde.
What happens next
The next documented milestone in the case is his June 2020 arrest in Cape Verde and the extradition process that followed.
In the document's own words
“Since the defendants have not made an initial appearance, they are transferred to fugitive status.”
How the court describes it (original, English)
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