PROTESTERS rallied opposite the US embassy in London on Thursday night, demanding an end to the show trial of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his immediate release alongside his wife Cilia Flores.

The couple were kidnapped by US forces in a January 3 overnight assault on Venezuela that saw over 100 people, including 32 Cubans guarding the president, killed.

They were then paraded through New York before being charged with “narco-terrorist” offences, relating to the US government’s unevidenced claim that Mr Maduro ran cartels smuggling drugs into the United States.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Sophie Bolt pointed out that the unprovoked US attack on Venezuela and abduction of its head of state were “in direct violation of the United Nations Charter.

“This obscene show trial by [US President Donald] Trump is supposed to give the impression that the US is following some kind of legal process, but nothing could be further from the truth.”

President Maduro is being held in a maximum security prison in solitary confinement and allowed out of his cell for just one hour a day. He and Ms Flores — the First Combatant, as the president’s spouse is known in Venezuela — appeared in court for the second time on Thursday.

Ninety-two-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed a request from the pair to have the charges thrown out on the grounds that the US is blocking the Venezuelan government from paying their legal fees, which they say undermines their right to defence counsel.

However, he questioned prosecutors’ logic and said he would rule on whether Venezuela could pay at a later date. The Venezuelan government continues to recognise Mr Maduro as its constitutional president.

Speakers including the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign’s Ben Studd, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s Rob Miller and Morning Star editor Ben Chacko tied the US’s aggression against Venezuela to its siege of Cuba and assault on Iran, slamming an out-of-control White House ripping up international law and tyrannising other countries.

“It should be the US president standing trial, shouldn’t it?” Ms Bolt concluded to cheers. “Trump should be in The Hague for war crimes!”