US Court Reschedules Hearing On Venezuela Embassy Defenders To December 13

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2019) A US court delayed for a week until December 13 a hearing on the case of four American activists who had resided in Venezuela's embassy building in Washington for more than a month as guests the Maduro government in an effort to prevent self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido's representatives from seizing it.

The December 13 status hearing is scheduled for December 13 at 9:30 a.m. local time (2:00 p.m. GMT), a court notice revealed. Initially the status hearing had been scheduled for December 6. The jury trial is scheduled for February 11, 2020, the document said on Thursday.

In May, US authorities broke into the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington to arrest the four activists, who had been residing in the building for more than a month as guests of Venezuela's government in an effort to prevent self-proclaimed President Juan Guaido's representatives from seizing it.

The activists argued that they had a legal right to stay in the facility because the embassy belongs to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's legitimate UN-recognized government.

On May 17, a US judge ordered the release of the four activists, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine, David Paul, on the condition that they do not come within 100 feet of Venezuela's diplomatic facilities. The activists are also required to report to the court on a weekly basis and cannot travel abroad without permission.

Venezuela has been suffering from severe political crisis since late January when US-backed opposition leader Guaido proclaimed himself interim president in a bid to oust Maduro from power. Maduro has accused Guaido of being a US puppet, working with Washington to orchestrate a coup so that the United States can control Venezuela's natural resources.

Earlier this year, Zeese, the Co-director of Popular Resistance activist group, told Sputnik that the United States violated international law including the Vienna convention by essentially invading the embassy, Venezuelan sovereign territory, with military troops.