Khaberni - Craig Martin, a law professor at Washburn University School of Law in Kansas and a specialist in international and comparative law, said that the trial of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a federal court in New York violates the principles of sovereign immunity in international law granted to heads of state, from three aspects:
- Immunity does not mean impunity, as leaders can be prosecuted in international courts or within their own countries, as occurred with the issuance of arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
- Current heads of state enjoy broader immunity than former heads, as foreign prosecutions do not apply to them except in very exceptional cases.
- Challenging the legitimacy of elections or describing the regime as undemocratic does not change the international legal status of the existing government, as long as it exercises actual control over the state's institutions, territories, and population.
