(Adnkronos) – Nicolas Maduro will appear today before a federal judge in New York, asking for the dismissal of narco-terrorism charges against him, as the United States government is allegedly blocking his defense by preventing the use of Venezuelan government funds to cover the former president’s legal expenses. In fact, Judge Alvin Hellerstein had scheduled today’s hearing, the first since last January, when charges were filed against the former Caracas leader and his wife Cilia Flores a few days after their capture by US special forces, to initiate procedures for setting the date for the actual trial.
But Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has denounced the fact that the US Treasury Department’s office responsible for controlling foreign assets has withdrawn the previously granted permission to use Venezuelan government funds to pay the legal expenses of Maduro and his wife, a permission necessary to avoid violating US sanctions to which both the government and the former Venezuelan leader are subject. The move violates the defendants’ constitutional right to defense, argues the lawyer, who, along with Flores’s lawyer, will ask the judge either to dismiss the charges or to schedule a hearing to evaluate the government’s conduct.
For their part, federal prosecutors state that the initial unblocking of Venezuelan government funds was “an administrative error” and emphasize that the Maduros have access to their personal funds to pay their lawyers’ fees. And in the brief filed in opposition to the request for dismissal, they recall that “regulations expressly prohibit the use of funds from sanctioned entities to pay the legal fees of a sanctioned person.”
Legal experts interviewed by CNN lean towards this interpretation: “since he is not recognized as the leader of Venezuela and the entire sanctions system was designed to target him, it is unlikely that the judge will find that he has the right to those funds to pay for his defense,” says Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor specializing in sanctions law. Moreover, the Maduros will not be left without a defense, as, in the absence of personal funds to pay a lawyer, American law always provides a public defender.
The Maduros, detained since their capture at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, have pleaded not guilty to charges of arms and cocaine smuggling, charges that could lead to a sentence of over 25 years. “I am not guilty, I am an honest man, the constitutional president of my country,” Maduro said at his first appearance before the judge, protesting against his capture by the US. And Pollack has already indicated that he will challenge the legality of Maduro’s arrest, claiming the immunity he enjoyed as president.
The United States, along with dozens of other countries, has not recognized Maduro, first elected president of Venezuela in 2013, as the legitimate president since the 2018 presidential elections. Following his deposition, which came after the US special forces raid on January 3, the United States recognized Delcy Rodriguez, appointed vice president by Maduro after the disputed 2018 elections, as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Here too, legal experts believe that, however extraordinary and legally dubious the circumstances of Maduro’s arrest may be, his lawyers face an uphill battle in invoking immunity for him. “Under the American Constitution, it is the president who determines whom to recognize as head of state, and I am 100% certain that an American judge will not contradict the US government’s determination that Maduro is no longer head of state,” William Dodge, a professor of international law at George Washington University, tells CNN, adding, however, that the way he was captured “is illegal under international law.”
“It is quite recognized in the United States that the illegal way in which someone is brought before a court has no effect on its jurisdiction,” concludes Dodge, finally expressing skepticism that Maduro will succeed in being granted immunity because the facts he is accused of occurred while he was president, given that “drug trafficking is not an official act.”
