By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged a U.S. judge on Wednesday to dismiss criminal drug trafficking charges against him, arguing he should be immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign country.
The charges, filed in Manhattan federal court, formed the basis for the January 3 operation in which the U.S. military raided Caracas and captured Maduro. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial starting June 1, 2027 if his effort to dismiss the case is unsuccessful.
The principle that sitting heads of state are immune from prosecution abroad is a longstanding tenet of international law seen as fundamental to diplomacy. Maduro's push to persuade Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the case will test U.S. courts' general reluctance to apply international law in criminal cases.
Legal experts have told Reuters that Maduro faces an uphill battle. Washington has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela's president since 2019, and courts tend to defer to the president and his cabinet in disputes over who is recognized as a foreign country's leader.
U.S. criminal cases involving heads of foreign states are extremely rare, but cases similar to Maduro's are generally not favorable to him. In 1990, a federal judge in Miami rejected former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega's attempt to assert head-of-state immunity in part because he never officially held the title of president.
The United States stopped recognizing Maduro in 2019, when he was inaugurated after a 2018 election the U.S. said was rigged. The U.S. also called his 2024 reelection fraudulent. Maduro says both votes were fair and has long accused Washington of seeking his ouster to gain control of the South American country's oil wealth.
Since Maduro's capture, his vice president and socialist ally Delcy Rodriguez has run Venezuela and increased cooperation with the Trump administration. Last month, the two countries reached an unprecedented deal that would see the U.S. take over around one-fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves.
Prosecutors have until October 2 to respond to Maduro's motion to dismiss the indictment, and Hellerstein will hold a hearing on the dismissal effort on November 17.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Rod Nickel)
