CARACAS - Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab on Thursday ratified an arrest warrant against former opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, for a string of alleged crimes committed following the July 28 presidential elections.

"The arrest warrant is in effect ... it must be enforced within the framework of the Constitution and the law," Saab told reporters, noting the ex-candidate has failed to heed the summons.

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After meeting with Gonzalez Urrutia's lawyer Jose Vicente Haro, he said the lawyer advised his client to appear before the Attorney General's Office, but the ex-candidate had been pressured by people outside his legal team to not attend.

Saab referred to a letter published by Gonzalez Urrutia, in which he recognized the authority and competence of the Public Ministry, the agency to which he must report and give evidence, and distanced himself from a website purporting to show voting records from the elections.

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"If you recognize the Public Ministry as an institution of the state ... guarantor of the rule of law, you must appear before it, you must present your arguments," said Saab.

 In the letter, the ex-candidate said one of the reasons he was ignoring the summons was the "lack of a basis for such subpoenas".