The kidnapping of the president and his wife violates the UN Charter and international law, Tarek William Saab has told RT

The US attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolas Maduro amounts to an act of war, the South American country's Attorney General Tarek William Saab has told RT.

American forces carried out a series of airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and several other regions of the country on January 3, while US commandos abducted Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. They were taken to a US warship and later flown to New York, where last week they appeared in court on drug-trafficking conspiracy charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In an interview with RT Spanish aired on Wednesday, Saab called the operation an "unprecedented" crime of aggression that has no basis in US or international law. He argued that Washington has "no criminal jurisdiction" to prosecute "a president, a head of state of a sovereign nation." Saab also noted that US officials have acknowledged that the so-called "Cartel of the Suns" - a purported criminal network alleged to operate within Venezuela's security services - "does not exist." 

The prosecutor insisted that the raid and abduction violated the UN Charter, the US Constitution, and key human rights treaties. This, he said, turns Maduro into "a prisoner of war whose personal and diplomatic immunity has been violated." 

Saab claimed the real aim was to "seize Venezuela's oil and natural wealth," rather than to promote democracy or fight narcotics. He argued that previous US rhetoric about Venezuelan "dictatorship" and regime change had "fallen to pieces," and that Washington now openly admits energy is the focus.

Following Maduro's capture, US President Donald Trump said the US would "run" Venezuela during a transitional period and needs "total access... to the oil and to other things in their country." 

"This takes us back more than 200 years, to when the Spanish Empire plundered the resources of the Americas at the cost of the lives of millions of indigenous people," Saab stated.

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Saab has called for "absolute, unconditional release" of Maduro and Flores at a hearing scheduled for March, warning the precedent could be used against leaders "in any country of Europe, Latin America, Asia or Africa."