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Ex-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and wife seek to end drug charges case on immunity grounds
NPR • • nation
Key Points:
- Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have requested a Manhattan federal court to dismiss drug trafficking charges against them, citing immunity as foreign head of state and first lady.
- Their lawyers argue that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction over sitting foreign leaders, emphasizing a long-standing legal principle that heads of state are immune from prosecution in national courts other than their own.
- Maduro and Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail since a U.S. raid in January and are scheduled for trial on June 1, with oral arguments on dismissal motions set for November 17.
- Both have pleaded not guilty and face potential life sentences if convicted of conspiring to traffic cocaine into the U.S., charges they vehemently deny.
- U.S. prosecutors allege Maduro collaborated with Venezuelan officials to facilitate drug trafficking, while Maduro calls his detention a kidnapping and claims prisoner of war status.
