US Judge Handling Maduro’s Case Dies at 92

Alvin Hellerstein, the United States judge overseeing the drug trafficking case against deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, has died at the age of 92, a court official confirmed on Wednesday.

Hellerstein’s death was confirmed by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he served.

Court records show that the case against Maduro has now been reassigned to Judge Analisa Torres, who was born in 1959.

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Questions had previously emerged over whether Hellerstein, one of the oldest serving federal judges in the United States, would be able to oversee what could become a lengthy trial.

He had handled the sprawling case against Maduro for more than a decade. The proceedings have also resulted in the conviction of Venezuela’s former intelligence chief, Hugo Armando Carvajal.

Maduro was captured by US forces during a military operation at his compound in Venezuela in January.

Hellerstein had a long judicial career that included overseeing civil litigation arising from the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks in New York and Washington.

He frequently rejected settlements he considered unfair to the victims and other claimants.

Venezuela's former president, Nicolas Maduro — Venezuela’s ousted president, Nicolas Maduro. Credit: Bloomberg.

He also ruled against US President Donald Trump in several cases.

Hellerstein rejected Trump’s attempt to move his New York hush money case from state to federal court and, last year, blocked the administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without court hearings.

In 2015, the judge ordered the US government to release photographs documenting the abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year, he also presided over a civil trial in which a jury found that BNP Paribas, the French banking group, had helped sustain the government of former Sudanese ruler Omar al-Bashir through its activities in the country.