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Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores have asked a US judge to dismiss their drug trafficking indictment on sovereign immunity grounds. The challenge could test how American courts handle criminal charges against a sitting foreign leader.
Newyork,UPDATED: Sep 3, 2026 08:50 IST
Former Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have asked a judge in the United States to dismiss a drug trafficking indictment against them, arguing that they are protected by sovereign immunity. In filings made in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, their lawyers said the case could not be brought against a foreign leader and first lady.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, are due to go on trial on June 1 next year on drug trafficking charges. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has scheduled oral arguments on their motions to dismiss the indictment for November 17. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Lawyers for Maduro said the judge was required by law to reject the indictment because it cannot be brought against a foreign leader. “No American court has ever presided over the criminal trial of a foreign leader who was recognised by their own country as the sitting head of state at the time the charges were brought,” the lawyers wrote. “That is not an accident of history. It reflects a rule older than the common law: heads of state are exempt from the criminal process of any national court but their own.”
In separate filings, lawyers for Flores said she too was immune from prosecution in the US on sovereign immunity grounds. “It is an attribute of Venezuela's sovereignty, and only Venezuela may surrender it,” her lawyers wrote.
Maduro's lawyers also said that even if he was not entitled to sovereign immunity as a head of state, the case should still be dismissed because he was also entitled to conduct-based sovereign immunity.
At the same time, the lawyers said Maduro “vehemently denies the allegations against him”. “If this case were to proceed to trial, it would be apparent that he has been falsely accused,” they said.
Maduro and Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail since early January, when US forces seized them from their home in Caracas in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York.
The criminal case was first brought six years ago against numerous alleged co-conspirators. Prosecutors say Maduro was part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the US. If a jury finds that Maduro and Flores were part of that conspiracy, they could face life prison sentences.
Federal prosecutors are due to respond to the arguments later this month. President Donald Trump's administration has defended the raid as a “surgical law enforcement operation”, while Maduro has described himself as a prisoner of war and his capture as a kidnapping.
US prosecutors have alleged that Maduro worked with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins move thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the US. The court will now hear arguments on whether the indictment should be dismissed before the case moves towards the scheduled trial next June.
With PTI Inputs
- Ends
Published By:
India Today Web Desk
Published On:
Sep 3, 2026 08:50 IST
