“PRISONER OF WAR” CLAIM
Maduro, 63, has pleaded not guilty to the US drug trafficking charges and declared that he is a “prisoner of war” in a hearing on Jan 5.
He is accused of having allied himself with guerrilla movements, particularly Colombian groups Washington considers “terrorist”, as well as with criminal cartels to ship tons of cocaine to the United States.
Pollack previously said that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, responsible for enforcing sanctions, initially granted licences on Jan 9 allowing him to take payment for representing Maduro and his wife, co-accused Cilia Flores.
But Pollack said that three hours later, OFAC issued an amended licence that blocked him from taking payment for the former president.
“By its failure to allow the government of Venezuela to pay Mr Maduro’s defence costs, OFAC is interfering with Mr Maduro’s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice,” Pollack said in a letter to the court dated Feb 20.
He said his team had lodged a challenge with OFAC and that if it failed to act, he would formally complain to the court, saying that Maduro “cannot otherwise afford counsel”.
Prosecutors fired back, saying a court filing that “even if the defendants’ constitutional rights were violated – which they were not – dismissal of the indictment would be far too drastic a remedy”.
Venezuela is now led by Delcy Rodriguez, who had been Maduro’s vice president since 2018 but is now working closely with Washington.
This month, the State Department said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Venezuela in a sign of thawing relations after Maduro’s ouster.
Security is expected to again be heightened for the hearing, with a security cordon of steel imposed around the downtown courthouse for his first appearance in January.
Presiding over the case is Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old judge credited with presiding over several trials during his decades on the bench.