A Venezuelan court has ruled to allow jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez to appeal his 14-year sentence for inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014, his lawyer said Friday.
The ruling comes as embattled President Nicolas Maduro faces growing tension over severe shortages of food, medicine and electricity, as well as opposition maneuvers to oust him in a recall referendum.
Lopez, who calls himself a political prisoner, will have his first appeal hearing on June 20, said his lawyer, Carlos Gutierrez.
The US-educated economist turned himself in to the authorities on February 18, 2014, amid a wave of pro- and anti-government protests that swept the country and left 43 people dead.
The government accused Lopez, the radically anti-Maduro leader of the Popular Will party, of inciting the violence. He denies the charge, calling his arrest an act of political repression.
His sentence, handed down last September, was strongly condemned by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
Gutierrez said international pressure may have convinced the courts to finally allow his client's appeal, which had been in limbo since he filed it in October.
He cited the call by the Organization of American States this week for Maduro and the opposition to hold talks as a "fundamental element" in the court's decision.
Oil-rich Venezuela has slid into crisis as global crude prices have plunged over the past two years, threatening Maduro and the socialist economic model he inherited from his predecessor and mentor, the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez.
The center-right opposition, which won control of congress in elections last December, has passed an amnesty for scores of jailed activists it calls political prisoners, including Lopez.
But the law was struck down by the Supreme Court, which the opposition condemns as pro-Maduro.
A Venezuelan court has ruled to allow jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez to appeal his 14-year sentence for inciting violence at anti-government protests in 2014, his lawyer said Friday.
The ruling comes as embattled President Nicolas Maduro faces growing tension over severe shortages of food, medicine and electricity, as well as opposition maneuvers to oust him in a recall referendum.
Lopez, who calls himself a political prisoner, will have his first appeal hearing on June 20, said his lawyer, Carlos Gutierrez.
The US-educated economist turned himself in to the authorities on February 18, 2014, amid a wave of pro- and anti-government protests that swept the country and left 43 people dead.
The government accused Lopez, the radically anti-Maduro leader of the Popular Will party, of inciting the violence. He denies the charge, calling his arrest an act of political repression.
His sentence, handed down last September, was strongly condemned by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union.
Gutierrez said international pressure may have convinced the courts to finally allow his client’s appeal, which had been in limbo since he filed it in October.
He cited the call by the Organization of American States this week for Maduro and the opposition to hold talks as a “fundamental element” in the court’s decision.
Oil-rich Venezuela has slid into crisis as global crude prices have plunged over the past two years, threatening Maduro and the socialist economic model he inherited from his predecessor and mentor, the late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez.
The center-right opposition, which won control of congress in elections last December, has passed an amnesty for scores of jailed activists it calls political prisoners, including Lopez.
But the law was struck down by the Supreme Court, which the opposition condemns as pro-Maduro.
