Death of jailed lawmaker sparks controversy in Venezuela

Venezuelan Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said lawmaker Fernando Alban, 56, was jailed last Friday for alleged involvement in what the government says was an assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro in August.

Venezuela’s president and his wife as well as top government officials escaped unharmed from the assassination attempt on August 4. But the government said seven soldiers were wounded.

Caracas subsequently arrested a number of people for alleged involvement in that attack.

Referring to Alban, Interior Minister Reverol said in a tweet, “At the moment he was going to be transported to court, while he was in the SEBIN waiting room, he jumped from the window of the building and fell, causing his death.”

The account differed slightly from the one by Chief Prosecutor Tarek Saab, who said Alban had asked to use a bathroom and jumped out of the window there.

Meanwhile, the opposition First Justice Party, of which Alban was a member, claimed he had been murdered.

“With great pain and thirst for justice, we tell the people of Venezuela... that Councilman Fernando Alban was murdered at the hands of the regime of Nicolas Maduro,” the party said.

Julio Borges, a national coordinator of First Justice, alleged that Alban had already been killed and his lifeless body was thrown from the SEBIN's headquarters in the capital, Caracas, only afterwards.

Neither the opposition First Justice Party nor its coordinator Borges provided any evidence.

On Monday, Reverol said Alban had also been interrogated for “destabilizing activities directed from abroad.”

The Venezuelan president often claims that the United States — which has imposed sanctions against officials in his government — is orchestrating attempts to topple him. But he has also welcomed an openness by US President Donald Trump to meet him.