The defense team of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has requested a New York judge to dismiss all charges against him citing the doctrine of sovereign immunity for heads of state from prosecution abroad, according to the legal motion.
"Mr. Maduro is entitled to sovereign immunity. The Indictment itself concedes that he exercised the powers of several official positions including Venezuela’s Presidency and remained, at minimum, the country’s de facto head of state, notwithstanding the Executive Branch’s subsequent political non-recognition of his de jure status," the document reads.
"Common law sovereign immunity deprives the Court of jurisdiction to adjudicate charges against Mr. Maduro as both a sovereign head of state and a foreign official prosecuted for acts attributable to the sovereign," the defense team continued. "The Court lacks jurisdiction over the prosecution of Mr. Maduro and must dismiss the Indictment against him, with prejudice."
In line with the international law, heads of state and high-ranking officials are granted personal immunity from criminal prosecution.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, captured by the US in January, petitioned a New York federal judge Wednesday to dismiss drug-trafficking and narco-terrorism charges against him, Bloomberg reported.
ΑπάντησηΔιαγραφή"This court lacks jurisdiction with respect to Mr. Maduro, who is recognized by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as its head of state," Maduro’s legal team wrote in a court filing.
The 63-year-old Venezuelan leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, are currently being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. They were brought to the US in January following a US military operation in Caracas that captured them.
Both have pleaded not guilty to allegations of collaborating with cartels to smuggle cocaine. "I am a decent man. I am still president of my country," Maduro declared during his arraignment.