Maduro Says U.S. Violated Venezuelan Sovereignty When He Was Arrested, Seeks His Release

Venezuela's former authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro has asked that the drug trafficking indictment against him and his wife be thrown out because he is a head of state and immune from prosecution.

CBS News noted that the motion was filed in Manhattan federal court and argues that the case should be dismissed: "No American court has ever presided over the criminal trial of a foreign leader who was recognized by their own country as the sitting head of state at the time the charges were brought," the motion states.

"That is not an accident of history. It reflects a rule older than the common law: heads of state are exempt from the criminal process of any national court but their own," adds a passage of the document.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken into custody Jan. 3 by the U.S. military to face federal drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges. In the indictment, the Justice Department accused Maduro of participating in a "culture of corruption in which powerful Venezuelan elites enrich themselves through drug trafficking and the protection of their partner drug traffickers."

"The profits of that illegal activity flow to corrupt rank-and-file civilian, military, and intelligence officials, who operate in a patronage system run by those at the top-referred to as the Cartel de Los Soles or Cartel of the Suns, a reference to the sun insignia affixed to the uniforms of high-ranking Venezuelan military officials," the indictment states.

Maduro was first charged in a sealed indictment in March 2020. A subsequent superseding indictment was unsealed after his arrest in January.

The indictment also addresses Maduro's status as head of state, questioning his legitimacy. Maduro became president of Venezuela after Hugo Chavez's death in 2013. Although he was declared the victor of a 2018 presidential election, Venezuela's national assembly ruled that Maduro had usurped power, had violated the country's constitution, and was not the president.

More than 50 countries, including the U.S., have refused to recognize Maduro as the head of state since 2019.

Regardless, the motions filed in court on behalf of Flores and Maduro argue that he was the legitimate head of state and therefore cannot face prosecution on U.S. criminal charges. Essentially, they argue that the U.S. actions violated Venezuelan sovereignty.

Maduro has also denied the veracity of the charges against him.

"If this case were to proceed to trial, it would be apparent that he has been falsely accused," the motion states.