US magistrate questions block on Maduro’s use of Venezuelan funds for legal defence team
A US magistrate questioned on Thursday whether the US can bar Venezuela from funding Nicolas Maduro’s legal legal defence team without violating his
An illustrative image related to: US magistrate questions block on Maduro’s use of Venezuelan funds for legal defence team, highlighting key aspects of the story. | Image source: Dawn.com
US magistrate questions block on Maduro’s use of Venezuelan funds for legal defence team
A US magistrate questioned on Thursday whether the US can bar Venezuela from funding Nicolas Maduro’s legal legal defence team without violating his US basic legal freedoms, but stopped short of dismissing drug-trafficking allegations against the ousted Venezuelan head facing proceeding in New York.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, wore beige prison garb to the assembly session in Manhattan federal judiciary over two months after US legal defence team forces captured them in a surprise targeted action on Caracas and ferried them to American soil.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have pleaded not guilty to allegations including narcoterrorism conspiracy and have been jailed in Brooklyn pending proceeding.
They had asked US Sector Magistrate Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the allegations, saying their inability to rely on Venezuelan general funds due to US economic penalties on Venezuela was interfering with their right to have a lawyer of their choosing under the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution.
All criminal defendants in the US have basic legal freedoms regardless of whether they are US residents.
Their lawyers have stated Maduro and Flores cannot afford to pay their legal defence team fees on their own.
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