Exiled Venezuelan Court Sentences Maduro to 18 Years in Prison - Reports

11:18 GMT, 16 August 2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal in exile has sentenced the country's president, Nicolas Maduro, to a prison term of 18 years and 3 months for corruption, El Nacional newspaper reported on Thursday.

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The judges announced their verdict in Colombia's Congress in the country's capital of Bogota on Wednesday, El Nacional reported.

The court also ruled that the Venezuelan president should pay $35 million in compensation to the country's government as part of a corruption case involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which reportedly gave a total of $439 million of bribes to officials in several Latin American countries between 2001 and 2016 in order to win contracts.

In May, the exiled court terminated Maduro's presidential powers over his alleged involvement in corruption.

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In July 2017, Maduro pledged to jail all Supreme Court justices who were sworn in by the National Assembly, which was controlled by the opposition. In addition, the Venezuelan authorities froze the judges' assets. Because of this, the justices were forced to flee Venezuela and eventually be sworn into office in exile in October 2017 at the Organization of American States in Washington.

Caracas, in its turn, does not recognize the authority of the Venezuelan Supreme Court in exile.