NEW YORK, January 15. /TASS/. The US Federal Prosecutor's Office will find it difficult proving the guilt of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores, Politico reported.
It said it will take years before a jury begins to consider the Venezuelan leader's involvement in the crimes imputed to him. The court will have to resolve several legal and geopolitical issues, for example, whether Maduro's arrest was lawful, and whether, from the point of view of American law, he was the president of Venezuela at the time of his detention.
"Mr. Maduro is the head of a sovereign state and is entitled to the privileges and immunities that go with that office," his lawyer, Barry Pollack, told the judge on January 5. "In addition, there are issues about the legality of his military abduction."
Given the case’s complex legal issues, the volume of discovery and the classified material involved, it will take "forever" to go to trial, said Jeffrey Brown, a former chief of the terrorism and international narcotics unit at the Manhattan US attorney’s office, which is handling the Maduro prosecution.
Maduro and his wife were captured during a military operation in Caracas on January 3. On January 5, they appeared before the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York. They are charged with involvement in drug trafficking, but pleaded not guilty. Delcy Rodriguez, who served as executive vice president under Maduro, is now authorized president. US President Donald Trump said the United States would take over Venezuela’s interim administration.