Defence lawyers had asked for case to be thrown out, claiming Maduro\u2019s rights were violated following US abduction.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 25 Apr 2026<\/span>25 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The United States has agreed to ease certain sanctions on Venezuela in order to allow the country\u2019s government to cover the legal fees for ex-president Nicolas Maduro, who is on federal trial in New York City for drug trafficking charges after being abducted by US forces in January.<\/p>\n Maduro\u2019s lawyer, Barry Pollack, had asked the Manhattan-based US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to toss out the case in February, arguing that a prohibition on the government in Caracas paying the legal fees constituted a violation of Maduro\u2019s legal right to the counsel of his choice.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n In a court filing, US Department of Justice lawyers agreed to modify US sanctions so that the Venezuelan government could pay Maduro\u2019s defence lawyer. They said the change makes the defence\u2019s motion to throw out the case \u201cmoot\u201d.<\/p>\n The pivot is the latest update in a closely watched trial that has raised a series of legal questions based on Maduro\u2019s status as a former head of state and how he was taken into US custody.<\/p>\n Critics have condemned the proceedings as fundamentally illegitimate, pointing to the extraordinary US military operation to abduct Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from Venezuela. Legal experts have called the raid a blatant violation of international law.<\/p>\n The Trump administration has maintained that the abduction was a law enforcement operation supported by the military. It has argued that Washington does not recognise Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela following several contested elections.<\/p>\n Under the international law concept of \u201chead of state immunity\u201d, sitting world leaders are typically granted immunity from foreign national courts.<\/p>\n After being spirited to the US, Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty and remain jailed in Brooklyn, New York. Maduro has rejected the US charges as a false pretext for seizing control of the South American country\u2019s natural resources.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire for foreign companies to access Venezuela\u2019s vast oil reserves.<\/p>\n During a hearing on March 26, Judge Hellerstein did not signal that he would throw out the trial, but did question whether the sanctions preventing the Venezuelan government from covering Maduro\u2019s legal fees were a violation of constitutional rights.<\/p>\n All criminal defendants in the US have constitutional rights, regardless of whether or not they are US citizens.<\/p>\n Prosecutors, at the time, argued that the sanctions were based on national security interests and asserted that the executive branch, rather than the judiciary, oversees foreign policy.<\/p>\n They further argued that Maduro and Flores could use personal funds to pay for a lawyer of their choice.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defendant is here, Flores is here. They present no further national security threat,\u201d said Hellerstein.<\/p>\n \u201cThe right that\u2019s implicated, paramount over other rights, is the right to constitutional counsel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Defence lawyers had asked for case to be thrown out, claiming Maduro\u2019s rights were violated following US abduction. Published On 25 Apr 202625 Apr 2026 The United States has agreed to ease certain sanctions on Venezuela in order to allow the country\u2019s government to cover the legal fees for ex-president Nicolas Maduro, who is on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"