Venezuela court upholds Maduro foe’s sentence

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s highest court upheld a 14-year prison sentence for opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, ruling a day after U.S. President Donald Trump called for his release during a White House meeting with the activist’s wife.

Lopez was found guilty of inciting violence during a wave of deadly anti-government protests in 2014, a conviction widely condemned as politically-motivated by many foreign governments and human rights groups. One of the prosecutors in the case said he was under orders from the government to arrest Lopez despite the lack of evidence.

Thursday’s ruling on an appeal by Lopez’s defense makes the conviction final, leaving international tribunals that Venezuela’s government is unlikely to recognize as his last resort.

Lilian Tintori, Lopez’s wife, denounced the ruling as illegitimate.

“Any sentence by this dictatorship is completely nulled,” Tintori said upon arrival Thursday to Caracas following her meeting with Trump. She was welcomed by dozens of supporters shouting “Freedom” and anti-Maduro slogans before being harassed, sometimes physically, by pro-government supporters.

A day earlier, Trump tweeted a photo of himself with Tintori demanding that the opposition leader be let out “immediately.” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez accused Trump of committing an “aggression” against Venezuela.

The U.S. on Monday slapped sanctions on Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami, accusing him of playing a major role in drug trafficking. Maduro responded by pulling the plug in Venezuela on CNN’s Spanish affiliate, which he accused of paving the way for the decision by implicating El Aissami in a recent report on Venezuela’s alleged selling of passports to members of a Middle Eastern terror group.