Antonio Ledezma, the imprisoned mayor of Venezuela’s capital, will ask the courts this week to drop charges that he was part of an alleged criminal network that planned to kill President Nicolás Maduro.
Ledezma’s lawyer, Omar Estacio, said his client is innocent and that the military witness who connected him to a coup plot may have provided the testimony under duress.
Few legal experts, however, think the courts will back down, saying Maduro has turned the judicial branch into a cudgel to hound the opposition.
Ledezma, 59, an outspoken government critic, was arrested Thursday after Maduro accused him of conspiring with U.S. authorities and Venezuelan military officials in a coup plot. According to Maduro, Ledezma was part of a shadowy plan to use aircraft to assassinate him and bomb the presidential palace and the ministry of defense.
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