SerpApi.Org
Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is due back in a New York courtroom today - just as it emerged the strongman is set to claim immunity from prosecution in his drug trafficking case.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, are both scheduled to appear before a judge at the federal court in Manhattan after they were each charged with conspiracy to traffic drugs through Venezuela to the United States.
In a letter filed ahead of the hearing, prosecutors said they expected both defendants to file a ‘motion claiming immunity in this case’.
The couple have been holed up in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn ever since US Special Forces dramatically arrested them on their home soil back in January.
Since then, the Trump administration has been effectively running the country with its interim President Delcy Rodriguez, one of Maduro’s close allies, nominally in charge.
Maduro and Flores, who face life in prison if convicted, are accused of orchestrating the kidnappings and murders of those who stood in their way, including a drug boss in Caracas, of their alleged drug trafficking.
According to the indictment, Maduro and Flores engaged in a ‘relentless campaign of cocaine trafficking’ to the US.
The letter, filed by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, laid out the schedule for motions ahead of a June 2027 trial.
No further details were given but during previous hearings Maduro has described himself as a ‘prisoner of war’ and claimed he was ‘kidnapped’ from his home country.
Maduro also claimed he was still President of Venezuela, which means he would be immune from prosecution in another country’s courts under international law, a principle which has been held up by the US Department of State.
But the picture is complicated because since Maduro’s ousting, the US has taken control of large parts of the Venezuelan government with Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly controlling the country’s finances and the distribution of its natural resources.
Rodriguez was sworn in shortly after Maduro’s capture but she has called for his release and said he is still President of Venezuela.
Speaking on Monday before departing for the Philippines for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, Rubio said that the transition process away from the Maduro regime had begun.
Opposition leaders had met with Maduro’s officials and formal talks about a transition will begin in August, however it is unclear if elections will take place soon.
Another potential twist is that, according to a report in the New York Times, the case could take a ‘hairpin turn’ if Maduro claims that the court is not the right venue for the case.
Maduro's lawyers could claim that an independent court of arbitration should be overseeing the matter under a 1922 extradition treaty between the US and Venezuela.
To fight his case, Maduro has hired attorney Barry Pollack, whose previous clients include Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Pollack is set to see the case to trial after the US government allowed the Venezuelan government to pay him.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially declined to issue a waiver to Maduro due to sanctions that are in place against Caracas, but amended it after the last hearing in March.
Meanwhile, the hearing will also give the public a chance to see how Flores and Maduro are coping with their treatment inside the harsh prison conditions.
Former inmates have said that the MDC is like ‘hell on Earth’ and Maduro and his wife are likely to spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in a cell.
In the past MDC prisoners have complained about unsanitary conditions and inedible food that was microwaved into the plastic container it came in.
Among those who have been held at the prison include: Ghislaine Maxwell, R Kelly and crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
During Maxwell’s detention at the MDC before her 2021 trial for child sex trafficking, she claimed that her hair was falling out from the stress of the conditions.
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