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Venezuela sentences three to 30 years in jail for failed drone attack on Maduro

Saturday, 10 December 2022 11:27 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 10 December 2022 11:31 AM ]

The moment when the two drones went off, body guards of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro opened up their portable protective bulletproof shield around him to protect him. (File Photo)

Venezuela has sentenced three people accused in a failed drone attack on President Nicolas Maduro in 2018 to 30-year jail terms, the maximum sentence in the country.

Maria Delgado Tabosky, a retired army major, Juan Carlos Marrufo and retired colonel Juan Francisco Rodriguez now face charges of "terrorism, treason and criminal conspiracy", a family source told AFP.

The criminal hearing began Thursday night and lasted into the early hours of Friday, according to the family member.

Maria, 48, holds dual Venezuelan-Spanish citizenship, and is Osman Delgado Tabosky's sister, who lives in the United States. She is accused of having financed the attack with two drones, that exploded near the stage where Maduro was giving his speech on August 4, 2018, in Caracas.

Maria is the wife of Marrufo, 52, who also holds dual citizenship of Venezuela and Italy.

The UN human rights body along with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention have said that the sentence of Maria and Marrufo in 2019 were "arbitrary."

They have been jailed for three years and eight months at the general directorate of military counterintelligence.

The couple’s relatives have requested their transfer to a prison along with authorities in Spain and Italy to intervene in their case.

In August, 17 people, including former opposition lawmaker Juan Requesens, were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 5 to 30 years.

Venezuela’s former lawmaker gets 8-year jail term over 2018 attack on Maduro

Venezuela

Requesens was convicted "for the crime of conspiracy," his lawyer Joel Garcia said on Twitter following his ruling.

On August 4, 2018, Maduro was addressing a crowd on the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian national guard of Venezuela, and was interrupted when two drones filled with explosives blew up near the place.

Maduro escaped unhurt in the attack but seven Venezuelan soldiers sustained injuries. At least 30 people including serving generals were arrested in the high-profile case.

The Venezuelan government called the attack a failed assassination attempt plotted by the US, Peru, then-Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, and the country's opposition.

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