Venezuela's Maduro Should Not Be Allowed To Use State Funds To Pay For His Defense, U.S. Prosecutors Claim

Venezuela's former authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro should not be able to use state funds to pay for his legal defense in the U.S., prosecutors said.

Reuters detailed prosecutor's arguments, who said Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, could still use their personal money for their defense.

"While both defendants claim that they are entitled to funds under the Venezuelan constitution ... both defendants also surely knew that the U.S. Government did not consider them to hold legitimate positions," prosecutors noted.

Both Maduro and Flores were captured on January 3 in a U.S. operation on the military compound in which they lived in Caracas. Ever since, Maduro's then-Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, has been recognized as the country's interim president.

Maduro and Flores have been imprisoned ever since. A recent report detailed that Maduro complains about being mistreated from his small cell in the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Spanish outlet ABC quoted Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who knows about the facility based on conversations with inmates, who claimed that "no one would like to spend a minute" there.

Maduro, the outlet added, is kept at a special housing unit, where he is in isolation. He is allowed out three times a week for an hour in shackles and escorted by two guards. There, he can shower, use the phone, access email or go out to a small outdoor patio.

Elsewhere, ABC said that the lawyer of another Venezuelan inmate who is being held close to Maduro said he has heard him call for help at night. "I am the President of Venezuela, tell my country I've been kidnapped. Tell my country we're being mistreated here," he has reportedly said.

Prison authorities refused to provide details of Maduro's imprisonment, telling the outlet that "due to security and privacy reasons, the Bureau of Prisons does not reveal the conditions of confinement of any inmates under its custody."