In an unusual legal twist, Washington has also agreed to lift some of its sanctions on Venezuela so that the Venezuelan government could pay legal fees incurred by the defence of former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro in his federal drug-trafficking trial. In response to the Department of Justice\u2019s filing, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein stated, \u201cThe right that\u2019s implicated, paramount over other rights is the right to constitutional counsel.\u201d As such, Barry Pollack, Maduro\u2019s defence lawyer, filed a motion to dismiss the case because the Department of Justice\u2019s prohibition on the use of Venezuelan funds to pay Pollack violates his client\u2019s Sixth Amendment right to select his own counsel.<\/p>\n
The Department of Justice has conceded that while Maduro is being held in jail pending trial in New York and has been abducted by the US military, the easing of sanctions renders Pollack\u2019s motion \u201cmoot.\u201d The decision affirms that individuals who are not citizens of the United States, but who have been arrested and are being prosecuted for criminal offenses on US soil, have constitutional protections the same as citizens.<\/p>\n
This is not a policy U-turn on Venezuela; all sanctions against Maduro\u2019s inner circle and against the Venezuelan government\u2019s oil production and exports remain in effect. However, the court\u2019s ruling indicates the legal principle will take precedence over the political position of the parties to the case when it comes to the ability of all defendants, even those who may be controversial, to receive appropriate legal representation.<\/p>\n
In that regard, the ruling represents a symbolic victory for the Venezuelan government, which shows that the US government can change the rules in response to pressure from the courts. The case will continue against the defendant.<\/p>\n
Expect no celebratory press conferences. Maduro\u2019s team will now focus on evidence challenges and procedural defenses. Meanwhile, US-Venezuela relations stay frosty \u2014 but this ruling proves that in American courtrooms, due process still has teeth.<\/p>\n
Sanctions eased, not ended. Maduro\u2019s trial continues. And the Constitution? It just reminded everyone: rights don\u2019t check passports at the door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In an unusual legal twist, Washington has also agreed to lift some of its sanctions on Venezuela so that the\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":117255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36215],"class_list":["post-117254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-venezuela-can-now-fund-maduros-legal-defense"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117257,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117254\/revisions\/117257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}