Venezuela’s judiciary has issued an arrest warrant against Edmundo González Urrutia, the opposition candidate for the presidency, claiming that he won the July 28 election, in which President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner, the prosecutor’s office announced yesterday Monday, which he asked a court responsible for terrorism cases.

“The Court of First Instance (…) issued an arrest warrant for Edmundo González Urrutia”, for “serious” offences, the prosecution assured via social networking sites. Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, a former diplomat, has not appeared after three subpoenas — his last chance was Friday — to testify about an opposition website that published count data that appeared to be the winner of the election.

The publication of election results by any body other than the National Electoral Council (CNE) is a criminal offense in Venezuela.

The prosecution asked for the warrant to be issued against Mr. González Urrutia for “disloyalty”, “conspiracy” and “sabotage”.

In addition, in August, the public prosecutors began to investigate Mr. González Urrutia and the leader of the opposition alliance, Maria Korina Machado, for attempting to “usurp” positions, “spreading false information”, “inciting disobedience to the laws”, “inciting rebellion” ” and “consistency and gang”.

The former ambassador, in semi-illegal status, has to appear in public from July 30.

He justified his failure to appear before justice by complaining that there is no “guarantee of independence” of the judicial system and accusing Attorney General Tarek Saab of engaging in “political” persecution of opposition leaders.

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro, whose re-election was upheld by the Supreme Court, was declared the winner with 52% of the vote by the CNE. However, the electoral commission has not released full, detailed minutes of the count, saying it was hacked.

The opposition, foreign governments and observers see from their own point of view in this maneuver of power to avoid revealing the “real” results. According to the opposition, which provided its own data compiled by its election agents, Mr González Urrutia should have emerged victorious with “more than 60%” of the vote.

After the announcement of President Maduro’s re-election, demonstrations and incidents broke out with 27 dead and 192 injured, while some 2,400 people were arrested, according to official data.

President Maduro and his government blame the opposition and personally Mr. Gonzalez Urrutia and Ms. Machado for the riots, judging that they should go to jail.

Washington, Brussels and many other capitals side with the opposition and do not recognize the election result.