New York. For more than a century, in cases involving defendants ranging from a 19th-century Chicago bank clerk charged with theft to a Central American dictator accused of drug trafficking, US judges have rejected arguments that alleged violations of international law or treaty obligations should result in dismissal of criminal indictments.
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is now poised to test those precedents when he files motions on Wednesday arguing his criminal drug trafficking case should be tossed.
Maduro, 63, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said Maduro is immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign state and raised questions about the U.S. military's capture of the longtime socialist adversary of Washington during a January 3 raid on oil-rich Venezuela.
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