Washington (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a Venezuelan judge and prosecutor over the jailing of six US-connected former oil executives who allege a sham trial.
The Treasury Department said it was freezing all US assets and criminalizing transactions with Judge Lorena Carolina Cornielles Ruiz and prosecutor Ramon Antonio Torres Espinoza.
The two were behind a trial last month in which six former executives from Citgo, the US-based subsidiary of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, were handed prison terms.
The six men's families say they were lured to Venezuela and arrested in November 2017 on charges such as money laundering -- allegations they call laughable in light of what they say is rampant graft and judicial bias under President Nicolas Maduro.
"The unjust detention and sentencing of these six US persons further demonstrates how corruption and abuse of power are deeply embedded in Venezuela's institutions," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said as he announced the sanctions.
Citgo's former president Jose Pereira Ruimwyk, a Venezuelan national with US residency, was jailed for 13 years and seven months and fined $2 million.
The other five men, all of whom were company directors and dual US-Venezuelan nationals, were each jailed for eight years and 10 months.
President Donald Trump's administration has been pressing unsuccessfully for nearly two years to oust the leftist Maduro, who presides over a crumbling economy.
The Trump administration has asked to no avail for the release of the "Citgo Six," saying in June that it feared they were in mortal danger as some had experienced Covid-19 symptoms.
