Case against Venezuelan Leopoldo Lopez fabricated, ex-prosecutor says

Case against Venezuelan opposition leader fabricated, ex-prosecutor says

By Ray Sanchez, CNN

White House calls for the release of Leopoldo Lopez

Ex-prosecutor: Case against Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez "invented"

Government blamed Lopez for violence during 2014 protests, but security forces also accused (CNN)The Venezuelan government fabricated evidence against opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, said a former prosecutor who handled the case against the popular politician.

Ex-prosecutor Franklin Nieves, who fled Venezuela last week, told CNN en Español on Tuesday that "100% of the investigation was invented" around false evidence in a sham prosecution allegedly orchestrated by President Nicolas Maduro and Diosdado Cabello, the head of the National Assembly.

Lopez was sentenced last month to nearly 14 years in prison and immediately took to social media to say, "This sentence is not only against me, but it attempts to bring down the spirits of everyone who is fighting to have a better country," according to his verified Twitter account.

Nieves said in an interview that he received orders from government officials to arrest Lopez two days before a 2014 opposition march.

He told CNN's Fernando del Rincon, "They jailed him because they fear his leadership."

The former prosecutor said that "after examining each and every piece of evidence it was shown that this person had at no point made even a single call to violence."

Video from anti-government protests where Lopez spoke show him "always calling on his supporters to remain calm," Nieves said.

Witnesses made false statements against Lopez, who was not permitted to adequately defend himself, said Nieves.

Venezuela's Ministry of Communications and Information has not responded to CNN requests for comment, but the nation's ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, told CNN that Nieves should have made his allegations during the trial and not afterward and Venezuela's chief prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Diaz, denied that Nieves was pressured to go after Lopez.

But Nieves said that the actions against Lopez are not uncommon in Venezuela.

"There are innumerable cases in which people were investigated and innocent people detained," he said.

Nieves said he had not spoken out earlier "out of fear" and because of the "pressure exerted" by superiors to get prosecutors to act "on the whims" of the government.

Lopez's wife, Lilian Tintori, said Nieves' accusations highlight the state of justice of Venezuela.

"Justice has been kidnapped, with the regime's henchmen unfairly making accusations against, imprisoning, torturing and persecuting the leaders who represent hope in Venezuela," she said.

Nieves' comments come one week after defense attorneys for Lopez appealed the sentence against the 44-year-old economist.

Human rights activists and the U.S. government decried the sentence against Lopez.

The court said Lopez committed serious crimes, according to Venezuelan state news agency AVN -- public instigation, vandalism, arson and criminal conspiracy.

But legal proceedings were a sham, Human Rights Watch said.

"The baseless conviction ... exposes the extreme deterioration of the rule of law in Venezuela," the rights group said in a statement. "The trials involved egregious due process violations and failed to provide evidence linking the accused to a crime."

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson said last month that the conviction "deeply troubled" her and called on the Venezuelan government to protect democracy and human rights.

In a four-page letter after his sentencing, Lopez said he was writing from the military jail of Ramo Verde. He urged all Venezuelans to instigate a "democratic rebirth" by making their voices heard in the country's next parliamentary elections.

The accusations against Lopez stem from opposition street protests in February 2014 that turned deadly. Dozens of people were killed, and hundreds injured.

Maduro, the handpicked successor to the late President Hugo Chavez, blamed Lopez, accusing him of terrorism and murder. Lopez was already a strong government critic before Chavez's death in March 2013.

In 2008, Chavez's government banned Lopez, a former mayor, from running for office.

Venezuela set to sentence opposition leader Lopez

But much of the violence at the 2014 protests stemmed from security forces, which also arrested hundreds, Human Rights Watch said. Security forces were accused of torture and abuse.

"The government has also tolerated and collaborated with pro-government armed groups of civilians," the group said.

Lopez briefly went into hiding but then turned himself in to authorities. He used social media to rally supporters who met him on the occasion.

A court said last month that Lopez's involvement in protests was part of a plan for a coup d'etat.

In June, Lopez went on a 30-day hunger strike in prison to demand congressional elections. The government has agreed to the demand, and elections are scheduled for December.

CNN's Osmary Hernandez and Arthur Brice contributed to this report.

Venezuelan official: Ex-judge 'sold his soul' to the DEA

(CNN) -- An ex-judge who accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of manipulating court rulings is a fugitive who "sold his soul to the devil" when he agreed to talk with U.S. investigators, the nation's foreign minister said Thursday.
"People like him will keep being defeated and his lies will be unveiled," Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said.
Eladio Aponte Aponte, who was a Supreme Court justice until the Venezuelan government accused him of connections with an alleged drug trafficker last month, told SOiTV that he made rulings in cases based on requests from Chavez and other top officials.
"They just asked for favors that I complied with. And woe be the judge that refused to cooperate. ... They were dismissed," Aponte Aponte said
Top Venezuelan authorities were aware of at least one instance in which a military lieutenant was caught transporting cocaine to an army camp -- and made personal phone calls asking the judge to look the other way, Aponte Aponte told the Miami-based TV network.
CNN has not independently confirmed the former justice's accusations.
In recent years, the U.S. Treasury Department has placed several Venezuelan officials, including the nation's current defense minister, on its drug kingpin list.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration flew Aponte Aponte to the United States from Costa Rica early Monday morning, according to the head of the Central American country's intelligence agency.
Mauricio Boraschi said U.S. Embassy officials contacted the Costa Rican government after the former judge -- who had been in Costa Rica for about two weeks -- reached out to officials in Washington.
The U.S. State Department told CNN it could not comment on what it called "this law enforcement matter."
Venezuela's foreign minister criticized the United States for attempting to destabilize his country's government.
"It is easy to understand how a fugitive from justice processed for his connections with drug trafficking mafias and removed from his job has sold his soul to the DEA," Maduro said. "The DEA has appeared again as a political actor in Venezuela against Venezuela."
The DEA has not commented on Aponte Aponte. An agency official who watched portions of the interview that aired on CNN en Español said it was "very interesting."
The former justice told SOiTV that high-ranking Venezuelan officials were involved in drug trafficking, but declined to say who or offer evidence.
In one instance, Aponte Aponte said, Chavez's office called and asked for the former judge's help after a military lieutenant was caught with cocaine. So did the nation's defense minister and other top officials, Aponte Aponte said.
They said "he was a good guy, that it was the president's order, that the president was very interested in the case," Aponte Aponte said.
The former judge also described weekly meetings in the Venezuelan vice president's office with the president of the Supreme Court, the attorney general and other top officials.
"That is where the directives of the justice system come from. ... They decide what guidelines to follow depending on the political climate," he said.
Several of his remarks contradicted previous statements by top Venezuelan officials -- including Chavez.
When asked whether there were political prisoners in Venezuela -- something Chavez has previously denied -- Aponte Aponte said yes.
"There are people they ordered not to be released. ... In a nutshell, we had to accept the fact that they were not to be released, so the justice system turned its back on them," he said.
Asked whether he felt that the Venezuelan government had turned against him, Aponte Aponte said, "I think they did that a long time ago. I just didn't realize it."
Venezuelan officials removed Aponte Aponte from his post last month, accusing him of providing a government credential to a man authorities allege was one of the world's top drug lords.
Aponte Aponte, who has not confirmed or denied that accusation, left Venezuela the day he was supposed to face questioning in the Venezuelan National Assembly.
A government ethics commission said the judge had committed "serious misconduct" and a "breach of public ethics" when he allegedly provided a credential to suspected drug trafficker Walid Makled.
Makled is currently on trial in Venezuela, where he is accused of drug trafficking and killing a journalist who was investigating his family. He was extradited to Venezuela from Colombia last year.
The United States designated Makled as one of the world's most significant drug kingpins in May 2009 and had also requested his extradition.
Makled, who denies U.S. accusations of drug trafficking, said in an October interview with Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper that he paid millions of dollars to government officials and top military brass so his family's shipping business could operate at some of the nation's largest ports.
"If I am a narcotrafficker, the whole Chavez government is a narcotrafficker," he told the newspaper.
Chavez has strongly denied those accusations and stood up for his government officials.
Maduro said Thursday that Aponte Aponte's removal from office showed that "in Venezuela the laws work. No one is privileged or protected."
Aponte Aponte told SOiTV that his daughter had invited Makled to her wedding, "but we didn't have any idea of the activities of this gentleman. We only knew him as a reputable businessman."
The former judge claimed Venezuelan officials had unfairly used the Makled case to destroy his reputation.
"I am not going to pay for a crime I never committed," Aponte Aponte told SOiTV, but he said he wants to make up for the harm his rulings have caused.
Aponte Aponte told SOiTV he left Venezuela disillusioned, but has since changed his perspective.
"When I finished packing all my stuff in my office, all my books, I told myself I'd never touch another law book. Justice is nothing, justice is a ball of putty. I say putty because it can be molded, for or against. I didn't want to have anything to do with the law anymore. I said I'd rather have a hotdog stand," he said. "But then, after all my reflection, and I had time to think it over, and after I saw that, that my friends have offered to help me, I now think you need to fight for justice. And that blindfolded lady has to be shown the way."
Saying he felt afraid for his life and betrayed by his colleagues, the former judge said he would go back to Venezuela to face the accusations against him only if officials respect his rights.
"Knowing the system from the inside, and how it works, and how it's handled, I don't think I'd have any rights at all. Not in my case at least," he said.

CNN's Fernando del Rincon, Ana Maria Luengo-Romero, Jamie Crawford and Terry Frieden contributed to this report.