The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office orders an investigation into the journalist who revealed the business of an alleged figurehead of Maduro

The Venezuelan Prosecutor’s Office has ordered an investigation against Roberto Deniz, the journalist who has worked in the investigation of the Pandora Papers in the Latin American country, specifically for the digital portal ‘Armando.info’, and that has revealed the business network of lawyer Álex Saab, the alleged front man of Nicolás Maduro.

Precisely, a few days ago the Venezuelan journalist denounced that there is a search warrant for his family’s home in Caracas. “I receive information that there is a search warrant against my family’s home in Caracas. It is public that I have not been in Venezuela since 2018, I have no property, not even a car, “he wrote on Twitter. He also assured that” since the beginning of 2020, “both he and his family have had” protection measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) “.

The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP) has confirmed that Roberto Deniz is out of the country for having received threats following his investigation into Saab’s business and has denounced that “Justice is being used to impose censorship.”

Already in 2018 Deniz and the editors Alfredo Meza, Ewald Scharfenberg and Joseph Poliszuk were sued by Saab for the alleged crime of aggravated “defamation” and “injury”, which carry penalties of between one and six years in prison. A complaint that was imposed after the outlet they work for published two reports that linked the lawyer with the company ‘Group Grand Limited’ and the sale to the Maduro government of food at subsidized prices to distribute in poor neighborhoods.

For its part, the US justice has opened a new judicial process against Saab in which people close to him would also be affected. Meanwhile, the Cape Verdean authorities – where he has been detained since 2020 – have begun the extradition process to the United States.