Venezuela’s highest court has upheld a 14-year prison sentence for a prominent opposition leader, ruling a day after Donald Trump called for the release of Leopoldo López during a White House meeting with López’s wife.
López was found guilty of inciting violence during a wave of deadly anti-government protests in 2014, a conviction widely condemned as politically motivated by many foreign governments and human rights groups.
One of the prosecutors in the case, who has since sought asylum in the US, even said he was under orders from the government to arrest López despite the lack of evidence.
Thursday’s ruling on an appeal by López’s defence made the conviction final, leaving international tribunals, which Venezuela’s government is unlikely to recognise, as his last resort.
Lilian Tintori, López’s wife, denounced the ruling as illegitimate. “Any sentence by this dictatorship is completely nulled,” Tintori said at Caracas airport on Friday, after her meeting with Trump. She was welcomed by dozens of supporters shouting “freedom” and anti-Maduro slogans before being harassed, sometimes physically, by pro-government supporters.
A day earlier, Trump tweeted a photo of himself with Tintori demanding that the opposition leader be released “immediately”. The Venezuelan foreign minister, Delcy Rodríguez, accused Trump of committing an “aggression” against Venezuela.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)Venezuela should allow Leopoldo Lopez, a political prisoner & husband of @liliantintori (just met w/ @marcorubio) out of prison immediately. pic.twitter.com/bt8Xhdo7al
February 15, 2017
The development took place during a turbulent week for US-Venezuelan relations.
On Monday the US slapped sanctions on the Venezuelan vice-president, Tareck El Aissami, accusing him of playing a major role in international drug trafficking.
Maduro responded by pulling the plug in Venezuela on CNN’s Spanish affiliate, which he accused of paving the way for the decision by implicating El Aissami in a recent report on Venezuela’s alleged selling of passports to members of a Middle Eastern terrorist group.
The government considers the CNN report a fabrication. But press freedom groups condemned the decision to kick out CNN, a vital source of information for Venezuelans given the dominant role of state-run media on the country’s airwaves and in print. A small protest was held outside the offices of the telecommunications regulator in Caracas on Thursday.
“When authoritarian regimes around the world start attacking journalism like that, we all have a problem,” said Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide.
