At the end of this Monday A judgment After four days, Judge Sara Cockerill, of the London High Court, announced that she will decide after the summer, which ends almost after August, on the Venezuelan gold that remains confiscated in the United Kingdom after the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela.
Cockerill, of Superior’s business division, said due to other commitments, a ruling is unlikely before October.
In the Cockerill trial, he heard the arguments of the lawyer Richard Lissack, of the board chaired by Calixto Ortega in favor of the Venezuelan State; and Andrew Fulton, on behalf of Guaidó, reported EFE.
The Venezuelan Government ratified the position of independence of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
After hearing the arguments, the British judge must determine if she considers the rulings of the TSJ in England that annulled Guaidó’s appointments to his “ad hoc” board of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV) to be applicable, EFE reported.
If it concludes that they are valid, it would be the BCV that would have authority over the 31 tons of precious metal, valued at 1,600 million euros.
Position of the Venezuelan State
The lawyer representing the BCV, Richard Lissack, stated that this case is extremely serious and will have “reverberations”, since it sets a precedent in British law.
He asked the judge to exercise “caution” when ruling and not to rely on the “generalizations” and “hearsay” allegedly used by Fulton about the political situation in Venezuela.
The lawyer stressed that this litigation is not a trial about the Maduro government but about which board can give instructions to the Bank of England, and pointed out that Guaidó’s has no real power and “does not answer to anyone.”
He asserted, quoted by EFE, that granting them access to gold will give them a free field “to do whatever they want” with impunity.
He argued that the witnesses he has presented in this process -among them former judge Francisco Carrasquero and the president of the BCV, Calixto Ortega- demonstrated that the TSJ and the BCV are entities independent of the Executive.
He said that his declarants are endorsed by a recognized career in their fields, while those chosen by Fulton are partisan and do not even have the experience for the positions they occupy in the “ad hoc” board, in addition to having spent years outside of Venezuela.
From the year 2019 the British authorities decided to ally themselves with the opposition Juan Guaidó, who ordered the Bank of England not to hand over authority over the assets of the Republic to another representation other than the one designated by him, ignoring the legitimate board of directors of Venezuela chaired by Calixto Ortega .
Meanwhile, the bank has stated that it was not clear which authority it should abide by.
