Published September 3, 2026
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has asked a U.S. judge to dismiss criminal drug trafficking charges against him, arguing that as the head of a sovereign nation he should be immune from prosecution.
Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack filed an appeal Wednesday in Manhattan District Court.
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His lawyers have petitioned District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the case, a move that will test U.S. courts’ willingness to apply international law in criminal cases.
Maduro was abducted and imprisoned on January 3 after US President Donald Trump authorized a military raid on Caracas. The former Venezuelan leader, who is being held in a federal prison in Brooklyn, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial on June 1, 2027, if efforts to dismiss the case are unsuccessful.
The principle that a sitting head of state is immune from prosecution abroad is a long-standing doctrine of international law and is considered a cornerstone of foreign policy.
Judge Hellerstein had given Pollack a deadline of Wednesday to file a motion to dismiss the case.
Mr. Pollack argued that Mr. Hellerstein lacked jurisdiction because sovereign heads of state enjoy full immunity and the acts of which Mr. Maduro is accused would have been part of his official duties.
“This unprecedented prosecution violates centuries of absolute immunity from criminal jurisdiction for heads of state and foreign officials acting in their official capacity,” Pollack said.
Pollack added that Maduro was falsely accused and “strongly denies” the charges.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, which filed the charges, did not respond to a request for comment.
Maduro faces an uphill battle
Legal experts told Reuters that Maduro faces an uphill battle.
Washington has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela’s president for years, citing disputed elections. In disputes over who qualifies as a foreign leader, courts tend to defer to the U.S. president and his cabinet.
Although U.S. criminal cases involving foreign heads of state are extremely rare, the precedent offers little encouragement to Mr. Maduro. In 1990, a federal judge in Miami rejected former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega’s attempt to claim head of state immunity, in part because he had never formally held the title of president.
The United States suspended recognition of Mr. Maduro in 2019. Mr. Maduro was in office for the second time after a 2018 election that critics said was fraudulent. Washington also claimed that his 2024 re-election was fraudulent.
President Maduro has insisted both votes were fair and has long accused the United States of seeking his ouster in order to seize control of the South American country’s oil resources.
But Mr. Pollack wrote that Washington’s assessment that Mr. Maduro lacks legitimacy is meaningless.
“Unlike Noriega, the executive branch is not disputing that Mr. Maduro was Venezuela’s head of state, only that he has not legitimately occupied that position since 2019,” Pollack wrote.
Venezuela ruled by Vice President Maduro
Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president and socialist ally, has been running Venezuela as interim leader since Maduro’s abduction.
Cooperation with the Trump administration has also been strengthened. Last month, the two countries reached an unprecedented agreement in which the United States will take over about a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves.
Pollack wrote that it was “incongruous” that the U.S. would recognize Rodríguez, a Maduro appointee, rather than Maduro himself. He pointed to statements made by Rodriguez and government officials in January and February that suggested they still considered Maduro Venezuela’s legitimate head of state.
The Rodriguez government has remained silent on the issue ever since. Some of Maduro’s murals in Caracas have been repainted in recent months.
Prosecutors have until October 2 to respond to Maduro’s motion to dismiss the charges, and Hellerstein is scheduled to hold a hearing on the dismissal effort on November 17.
