Venezuela orders lawmaker’s arrest

Ruling seen as bid to silence opponents

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s high court issued an arrest order for the ousted chief prosecutor’s husband Thursday after authorities accused him of running a $6 million extortion ring, a ruling promptly denounced by government critics as a move aimed at silencing opponents of President Nicolas Maduro.

The government-stacked Supreme Court also announced that it was referring German Ferrer’s case to the new, all-powerful constitutional assembly. The assembly was installed earlier this month at Maduro’s behest after a widely criticized vote, and late Thursday it voted unanimously to lift Ferrer’s immunity from prosecution that comes with legislative office.

Ferrer is a lawmaker formerly aligned with Maduro’s administration who has stood by his wife, Luisa Ortega Diaz, in denouncing the assembly’s creation.

In a statement to the media, Ferrer denied signing documents that officials are holding up as evidence that he opened a bank account in the Bahamas to facilitate transactions.

“This government no longer has any limits or shame,” he wrote.

Tarek William Saab, who was named by the constitutional assembly to replace Ortega Diaz as chief prosecutor, said Wednesday that the alleged criminal ring extorted money from people including businessmen in the nation’s oil industry in return for protecting them from prosecution.

Ruling socialist party leader Diosdado Cabello provided prosecutors with papers allegedly showing that Ferrer and others opened six bank accounts at the Bahamas branch of a Swiss bank.

In his statement, Ferrer said the documents “don’t pass muster.”

Cabello’s involvement in the case led many to conclude it is politically motivated. Opposition lawmaker Henry Allup questioned the timing of the charges, asking why they appeared so soon after Ferrer broke publicly with Maduro’s government.

“This is a way to intimidate,” he said.

Ferrer and Ortega Diaz’s whereabouts Thursday were not clear. Authorities raided their home the previous day.

Meanwhile, a so-called truth commission established by the president’s constitutional assembly announced investigations into Julio Borges, president of the National Assembly, and Freddy Guevara, the assembly’s vice president, claiming that they promoted violent anti-government protests that have left more than 100 people dead.

Thousands of people have been detained in four months of anti-government street protests. Since the constitutional assembly was installed, five mayors have been removed with arrest warrants. But the assembly is poised to vote on a broad new measure, proposed by Maduro, that could punish government critics with up to 25 years in prison.

The constitutional assembly, which is in charge of rewriting the nation’s charter and trumps all other branches of government, has been condemned by dozens of foreign nations that refuse to recognize it.

Information for this article was contributed by Nathan Crooks of Bloomberg News.