A Venezuelan court has sentenced three citizens, including a Portuguese-Venezuelan, to 30 years in prison, the maximum sentence, for involvement in a failed attempt to assassinate Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, using a drone.
The verdict was handed down on Friday and the decision was announced by the Committee for the Freedom of Social Combatants and Political Prisoners.
Juan Carlos Marrufo, his wife Maria Auxiliadora Delgado and retired Colonel Juan Francisco Rodríguez dos Ramos were sentenced to 30 years in prison [de origem portuguesa]on charges of treason, terrorism and conspiracy,” the commission said on its Twitter account.
On the same social network, citing lawyer Lucília Hurtado, the commission denounces that during the last hearing Judge Hennit López “limited himself to identifying them [aos acusados] and pointing to a sentence of 30 years, without mentioning the evidence linking them to these offenses (…), which is contrary to Article 347 of the Organic Code of Criminal Procedure”.
Lucília Hurtado denounced “procedural fraud, malicious posting of evidence, violation of the right of defense, among other violations of the defendants’ principles, rights and constitutional guarantees.”
According to the Venezuelan Foro Penal (FP), Marrufo Delgado and the woman “were arrested in March 2019, released on October 2 of the same year after a warrant issued on June 7, but on the same day they were arrested again before Special Action Forces agents (FAS)”.
“The operation took place after the disappearance of a relative of Delgado Tabosky, a retired military man accused of trying to kill Nicolás Maduro.”
On the other hand, colonel of Portuguese descent, retired from the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB, military police) Juan Francisco Rodríguez dos Ramos, was also arrested twice, “first he was charged with conspiracy and released, later he was arrested again on charges of terrorism”.
According to FP, “his hearing was postponed four times”.
In August 2022, opposition political leader Juan Requesens was also sentenced to eight years in prison for the same crime.
According to the local press, Marrufo Capozzi has Italian nationality, his wife Delgado Tabosky is Spanish and Juan Francisco Rodríguez dos Ramos is of Portuguese descent.
Source: DN
