Trial on drug-trafficking charges scheduled to begin June 1
Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, asked a Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the drug-trafficking indictment against them, arguing that a sitting foreign head of state cannot face prosecution in a U.S. court.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, Maduro’s lawyers argued that a judge was required by law to reject the indictment. “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 lawyers wrote.
The filing treats the question of whether the case can proceed as settled doctrine rather than an open legal issue. “That is not an accident of history,” the lawyers wrote. “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.”
Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who is presiding over the case, scheduled oral arguments for Nov. 17 on the motions to dismiss. Maduro and Flores are scheduled to go on trial on drug-trafficking charges on June 1 of next year, if the case survives the immunity challenge.
The Wednesday papers frame the immunity question as dispositive, asking the court to halt the prosecution entirely before any examination of the underlying drug-trafficking allegations.