President Donald Trump’s move to seize Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro from his country to face trial in the US amounts to “an aggression crime,” the founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said, calling the operation “absolutely not” legal.
“He bombed the country and then removed the president. That’s political interference,” Luis Moreno Ocampo told CNN’s Jim Sciutto Sunday, referring to the Trump administration’s capture of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over the weekend.
“What President Trump did in Venezuela is clearly an aggression crime,” he added.
According to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a “crime of aggression” refers to the “planning, preparation, initiation or execution… of an act of aggression” by political or military leaders.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended the legality of operation, saying that it did not need Congressional approval.
“It wasn’t necessary because this was not an invasion. We didn’t occupy a country,” Rubio told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.
Former state and federal prosecutor David Weinstein said in most instances, cases involving law enforcement officers entering another country to make arrests often have an extradition treaty or the host country expelling the individual.
