The United States has agreed to modify its sanctions on Venezuela to allow the South American country’s government to pay Nicolas Maduro’s defence lawyer, backing off a restriction that had threatened to derail the drug trafficking case against the ousted Venezuelan president, a court filing showed on Friday.
Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, were abducted from their home in Caracas by US special forces on January 3 and brought to New York to face criminal charges, including narcoterrorism conspiracy. They have pleaded not guilty and are jailed in Brooklyn pending trial.
Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack in February asked Manhattan-based US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the case because US sanctions were preventing the Venezuelan government from paying his legal fees.
Pollack said that prohibition amounted to a violation of Maduro’s rights under the US Constitution to the counsel of his choice.
Neither Maduro nor Flores can afford lawyers on their own, and the Venezuelan government is prepared to pay their fees, their lawyers have said.
All criminal defendants in the US have constitutional rights regardless of whether they are US citizens.
Hellerstein said in a March 26 court hearing that he did not intend to dismiss the case, but appeared sceptical that the government was justified in blocking the payments.
Prosecutor Kyle Wirshba said in court that the US sanctions blocking the payments were based on legitimate national security and foreign policy interests.
Wirshba also said that Hellerstein could not order the Treasury Department to modify its sanctions because the executive branch, not the judiciary, is in charge of foreign policy.
Hellerstein noted that the US had relaxed sanctions on Venezuela since Maduro’s ouster.