CARACAS, VENEZUELA (AP) - Venezuela’s Supreme Court has decided that the trial of a top opposition leader will be held in Caracas instead of his home city, and the official’s lawyer vowed to fight the corruption charge in any court.
The court said Monday that it agreed to a prosecutor’s request to move the trial of Manuel Rosales from Maracaibo to the capital to ensure “the security of all the parties involved” and because it is a serious case that has caused a “public scandal.”
Manuel Rosales, who was President Hugo Chavez’s top opponent in the 2006 presidential election, faces a charge of illegal enrichment. He maintains he is innocent and accuses prosecutors of attempting a “political lynching ordered by Chavez.”
“Wherever the case is assigned, we’re going to show that Manuel Rosales is innocent,” defense lawyer Alvaro Castillo said Tuesday.
Chavez called for Rosales’ imprisonment last year, though he denies influencing the legal process.
Rosales, who is the mayor of Maracaibo, the country’s second largest city, has said he suspects moving the trial is an effort to “search for a judge who’s obedient.”
Four judges in the western state of Zulia, meanwhile, have been suspended from their duties by the Supreme Court after allegedly meeting with Rosales, pro-Chavez lawmaker Calixto Ortega told state television Tuesday.
He said any such contacts must be fully investigated, alleging that one of those judges could have been in a position to influence the case.
Prosecutors say Rosales failed to show the legal source of about $68,000 in income several years ago while he was Zulia state governor. Rosales says he reported the money and that it came from his involvement in the agriculture business.
It is unclear how soon a trial could begin.
A prosecutor has called for Rosales’ arrest, but the courts have yet to rule on that request.
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