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.

TalCual: The Venezuelan Supreme Court Blew it

TalCual: The Venezuelan Supreme Court Blew It!

The Supreme Court's actions may increase the already painful numbers this crisis is costing us: besides making the already awful economic data look more abhorrent each day, the Court's decisions will likely encourage more protests and repression and therefore, the toll of victims will rise. The TSJ blew it, no doubt about it. 

By TalCual

CARACAS -- As has already been expressed by a lot of people who know Constitutional Law, the Supreme Court (TSJ) blew it regarding its decision curtailing the right to protest peacefully. We would also like to lay stress on how brutally inappropriate it was to give Hermann Escarrá the last word regarding this matter, especially in times of delicate peace talks when things needed to cool off in Venezuela.

We already know how and what the Supreme Court (TSJ) blew -- just remember that famous expression of the late Hugo Chávez when the same court ruled that the April 11, 2002 coup d'état was no such thing but a power vacuum, because of that mysterious resignation of the president that never took place in the end.

What we cannot stop saying is that the TSJ -- in cutthroat competition for the position -- has proved to be the most submissive of all public powers to the orders coming from the Miraflores presidential palace – the Ombudsman's Office doesn't count because it is body of questionable existence. The Court even went so far with Justice Luisa Estella Morales, assisted by constitutionalist lawyer Carlos Escarrá, "theorizing" that Montesquieu and his separation of powers were a "bourgeois waste," while speaking about a new endogenous conception of justice.

Many of the exploits of these two could be listed here, but it would be impossible in only a few characters. Let's just evoke them publically chanting their slogans in unison -- "Ooh, aah, Chavez no se va! (Ooh, aah, Chavez doesn't leave!) -- to show their passionate devotion to the Government in the meantime.

Or recall the heroes of their own such as former TSJ Justices Luis Velásquez Alvaray or the ineffable Eladio Aponte Aponte (who, seeking asylum in the US, has admitted judging cases as directed by Chavez the regime or for taking bribes and drug money to decide cases in the absence of official direction), among others. And lastly, the Court's latest affronts where they do or endorsing quick trials without having the slightest respect for due process, in which a parliamentarian and two mayors from the opposition coalition have been unfairly removed from office.

As has already been expressed by a lot of people who know of case law on the violation of the Constitution as to curtailing the citizens' right to protest peacefully along with, by the way, the distortion of the nature and functions of municipal police forces, we won't insist on this issue; instead, we recommend in this regard the comprehensive analysis made by Provea, or the Venezuelan Program of Education and Action on Human Rights.

But what we are going to lay stress on is how wrong it was to have given Escarrá the last word regarding this matter in times of delicate peace talks when things need to cool off in Venezuela, to the extent that the brave students protesting out in the streets were asked to become part of the negotiating table. And they were asked nicely, not by the repressive ways used by the Government over the past few months.

It must be stressed that being called a "murderer of students" is not very flattering for any government; what is more, this sounds like its own funeral if one takes a small look back at the history of our country. And what the TSJ just ruled does nothing but challenge and encourage protesters to remain in the streets.

Some of the backers of this ruling are, for instance, Jorge Rodríguez, a mayor who considers the Libertador municipality of Caracas his own private property, where only followers of chavismo are allowed in.

Last Friday, by the way, a small peaceful demonstration of bioanalysts, professionals that just wanted to be heard on the almost total lack of inputs for their work and what might entail serious consequences for the health and lives of thirty million Venezuelans, curiously coincided with the launch of this new legislation in that municipality. And it's worth mentioning that kind of petition is more than justified.

Lastly, there are even some reasons to believe the TSJ may pull the plug on the ongoing peace talks. And that way increase those already painful numbers this crisis is costing us: besides making the already awful economic data look more abhorrent each day, it will likely encourage more protests and repression and therefore, the toll of victims will rise. The TSJ blew it, no doubt about it.