Tarek William Saab on the statement of the UN Mission

Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on Wednesday that members of the UN Fact-Finding Mission – chaired by Portuguese jurist Marta Valiñas – receive “five million dollars” to “attack” the country.

“There is a so-called fact-finding commission, which has been out of date for five years, (…) they are paid five million dollars to talk and rehash (sic) what they find on social media and attack Venezuela,” said Saab in a speech broadcast by the state channel VTV.

The Mission, established in 2019 by the UN Human Rights Council, called on the international community on Tuesday, in the presentation of a report on the situation in Venezuela, not to become tired or normalize what is happening in the country, which – it noted – is experiencing the worst wave of repression and human rights crisis since 2019.

He revealed that he was able to confirm that in the post-election protests against the official result that gave Nicolás Maduro the re-election in the presidential elections of July 28, at least 158 ​​children were detained and that some of them suffered disabilities and were accused of serious crimes, such as terrorism or inciting hatred.

The mission, which also includes Chilean lawyer Francisco Cox and Argentine human rights expert Patricia Tappatá, supported by a technical team, will officially present its report to the Human Rights Council on Thursday..