Feb 25 (Reuters) - Venezuela Attorney General Tarek Saab has resigned after a nearly nine-year tenure, the country's legislature said on Wednesday, but has been elected as the country's acting ombudsman after that official also resigned.
Saab's leadership has drawn repeated criticism from human rights groups, but assembly president Jorge Rodriguez hailed his "lifelong expertise in human rights" as he asked the ruling party-dominated assembly to back the interim naming of Saab as ombudsman, responsible for safeguarding citizens' rights.
Saab, 63, was appointed attorney general in 2017 and presided over the government's response to several corruption scandals, as well as the arrests of some well-known opposition figures and protesters who human rights groups say were unjustly detained.
Heavily tattooed and a published poet, Saab has always denied that the government holds political prisoners, telling Reuters this month he hopes an amnesty law since passed by the legislature will ensure a "100% pacified" country.
“I call them prisoners, I don’t give anything any additional label," Saab told Reuters this month. "They are detainees for actions that at the time were documented."
The assertions repeat statements he made to Reuters in 2024, before thousands were arrested for participating in protests amid a contested presidential election marked by allegations of fraud after Nicholas Maduro was named the winner. The U.S. captured Maduro in an early January raid after a months-long campaign to pressure him to cede power.
In his resignation letter, read aloud by Rodriguez to lawmakers, Saab said he "carried out this office with integrity and honor, amid historical circumstances of exceptional challenge for the present and future of our homeland, in which we played the constitutional role of preserving peace and protecting the human rights of our people during a period of unimaginable aggression against the Venezuelan nation."
Saab did not reply to a request for further comment.
Saab played a "leading role" in "systematic persecution of critics and opponents", Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
"Appointing him as ombudsman is a slap in the face of victims. Meaningful reform requires appointing a new attorney general who is independent, ceases to persecute dissent, and commits to ensuring that all political prisoners are released and amnestied.”
Larry Devoe, head of the National Council of Human Rights, will serve as acting attorney general, and the assembly will form committees to choose permanent replacements, Rodriguez, brother of acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Stephen Coates)
