LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s High Court rejected Nicolas Maduro’s latest efforts on Friday to get control of more than $1 billion of Venezuela’s gold reserves stored in the Bank of England’s underground vaults in London.
The court ruled that judgements by the Maduro-backed Venezuelan Supreme Court that the gold should be moved from London should be disregarded.
It marked the latest victory for Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido, who has won a series of legal clashes over the gold after the UK government recognised him rather than Maduro as the Latin American country’s president.
“I have.. concluded that the Guaidó Board succeeds: that the STJ (Venezuelan supreme court) judgments are not capable of being recognised,” The judge in the case said.
Lawyers for the Maduro-backed Venezuelan Central Bank said the bank was considering an appeal.
(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Michael Holden)
