Maduro seeks dismissal of charges, claims US blocked legal defence funds

President Maduro’s lawyer said his client’s right to legal counsel of choice has been denied by US government actions.

Venezuela’s abducted President Nicolas Maduro has asked a United States judge to throw out drug trafficking charges brought against him by the Trump administration, alleging that Washington was sabotaging his constitutional right to defend himself.

Maduro’s legal team argued on Thursday that the case should be thrown out because the US government has blocked the Venezuelan government from covering the abducted president’s legal fees and those of his wife.

By blocking funds, the US administration was “interfering with Mr. Maduro’s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice”, Maduro’s defence lawyer Barry Pollack said in a filing to a Manhattan federal judge.

Interference in Maduro’s right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution requires dismissal of the charges, Pollock said.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been jailed in New York without bail since they were seized from their Venezuelan home on January 3 in a bloody nighttime raid by US military forces.