A Venezuelan court sentenced former deputy Juan Requenses and 16 others to between 5 and 30 years in prison for participating in an alleged failed attempt against dictator Nicolás Maduro in 2018.
Requenses, who was a member of the National Assembly elected in 2015 and controlled by the opposition, was sentenced to eight years in prison for “the crime of conspiracy”, according to his lawyer, Joel García, at a hearing held overnight.
Twelve of those convicted received the maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
According to the NGO Foro Penal, the charges ranged from terrorism, association to commit crimes, intentional murder, betrayal of the country and the throwing of explosives in public places.
The sentence comes four years after the explosion of two drones near a place where Maduro was leading an act with the military, on August 4, 2018. Authorities accused the then government of President Juan Manuel Santos, of Colombia, of planning the attack in collaboration with the US and Peru.
“It is evident that these convictions are intended to support the false narrative of power about an alleged attempt at magnicide. They are scapegoats,” said Gonzalo Himiob, a lawyer at Foro Penal, which handles cases of political prisoners.
After his arrest, three days after the alleged attack, the government released a video in which Requenses, now 33, admitted to having had contact with one of the people allegedly involved in the case. According to the opposition, he made the video while under the influence of drugs or under threat.
In August 2020, Requenses was placed under house arrest after spending more than 700 days in prison, without conviction, in the dreaded Helicoide prison, awaiting a trial.
“The Public Ministry could not demonstrate your responsibility in any of the seven crimes for which you were accused,” said his lawyer. “The judge has no way of convicting you and you should have been acquitted, but our justice is hijacked.”
Among those who received the maximum sentence are Emirlendris Benítez and Yolmer Escalona.
“There is no evidence linking them to any crime. Ms. Benitez and her husband, Yolmer, were providing taxi service to people they did not know when they were arrested,” Himiob said.
“The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared in 2021 that the arrest of Emirlendris Benítez had been arbitrary and urged the Venezuelan State to release her,” he added.
According to the NGO, Venezuela currently has 245 political prisoners.
