Maduro seeks dismissal of US drug charges

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, asked a federal judge in New York to throw out drug trafficking charges against them, arguing that U.S. courts cannot prosecute them because they have immunity as the head and first lady of a sovereign country.

Lawyers for Maduro filed the request Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, saying the indictment violates a longstanding rule that foreign leaders are exempt from criminal proceedings in another nation’s courts. Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, argued that District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein lacks jurisdiction because sitting heads of state have complete immunity and because the acts alleged by prosecutors would have been part of Maduro’s official duties.

“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,” Maduro’s lawyers wrote, according to NPR. “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.”

Pollack wrote in the filing, according to Al Jazeera, that “this unprecedented prosecution violates the absolute immunity from criminal jurisdiction to which heads of state and foreign officials acting in their official capacities have been entitled for hundreds of years.”

Flores, 69, filed a separate request for dismissal on similar sovereign immunity grounds. “It is an attribute of Venezuela’s sovereignty, and only Venezuela may surrender it,” her lawyers wrote, according to NPR.

Maduro, 63, and Flores have pleaded not guilty. They have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in early January and brought them to New York, NPR reported. Al Jazeera described the operation as a military raid in Caracas authorized by President Donald Trump on January 3. Trump’s administration has defended the raid as a “surgical law enforcement operation,” while Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and described his capture as a kidnapping.

The criminal case was first brought six years ago against numerous alleged co-conspirators. U.S. prosecutors say Maduro helped carry out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement and drug kingpins. Maduro “vehemently denies the allegations against him,” his lawyers wrote. “If this case were to proceed to trial, it would be apparent that he has been falsely accused.”

Maduro and Flores face potential life prison sentences if convicted. NPR reported that they are scheduled to go on trial next June 1; Al Jazeera reported that the trial date is June 1, 2027, if the dismissal effort fails.

Hellerstein has scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 17. Al Jazeera reported that prosecutors have until Oct. 2 to respond to Maduro’s motion, while NPR reported that federal prosecutors are scheduled to file a response later this month. A spokesperson for the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

Maduro’s legal effort faces a significant legal and diplomatic dispute over recognition. Al Jazeera reported that Washington has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s president for years, citing disputed elections, and that courts tend to defer to the U.S. president and cabinet on questions of who is recognized as a foreign leader.

The United States stopped recognizing Maduro in 2019, after his second inauguration following a 2018 election critics called rigged, and also called his 2024 re-election fraudulent, Al Jazeera reported. Maduro says both votes were fair and has accused the United States of seeking his ouster to gain control of Venezuela’s oil wealth.

Pollack argued that Washington’s view of Maduro’s legitimacy should not control the immunity question. “Unlike in Noriega, the Executive Branch does not dispute that Mr Maduro was Venezuela’s head of state, but instead merely claims that, after 2019, he did not occupy that position legitimately,” he wrote, according to Al Jazeera.