The Court of Appeal of England overturned the decision of the High Court of London, which recognized the presidency of Juan Guaido in a dispute over the return of the gold of the Bank of Venezuela held in the Bank of England. RIA Novosti was informed about this by the law firm Zaiwalla & Co, which represents the interests of Venezuela in court.
“In a judgment delivered today, the Court of Appeal of England upheld the appeal of the Central Bank of Venezuela and overturned Judge Tire’s decision of 2 July 2020”, – the statement said.
As noted in Zaiwalla & Co, the appellate court concluded that the decision of the previous instance was wrong, “since the conditions for the recognition by the British government of Juan Guaido de jure as President of Venezuela excluded the possibility that the British government would nevertheless also recognize President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro as de facto president”.
The Court of Appeal also ordered a thorough investigation, including evidence of existing diplomatic relations between the UK and Venezuela and other factors, to determine whether the UK government recognizes that Maduro does indeed continue to exercise de facto powers as head of state and head of government of Venezuela.
The Court of Appeal of England at the end of September held hearings on the lawsuit of the Bank of Venezuela, which appealed the decision of the High Court of London, which in July this year, in a dispute between the Bank of Venezuela and the Bank of England about the return of gold bars weighing about 31 tons, stored in Britain, recognized the legitimacy of the presidency of the opposition leader Venezuelan Juan Guaido.
At the end of January 2019, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that the Bank of England refused to issue $1.2 billion in gold bars to Caracas. One unnamed source told the agency that the decision not to issue gold came after senior US officials, including US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then US National Security Adviser John Bolton, pressured colleagues in the UK to block Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro access to his assets abroad.
The media reported that Guaido appealed to Theresa May, who was then Prime Minister of Great Britain, with a request not to return the gold bars to the Maduro government.
In Venezuela, on January 21, 2019, massive protests began against President Maduro shortly after he was sworn in. The head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, Guaido, illegally proclaimed himself interim head of state.
A number of Western countries, led by the United States, announced the recognition of Guaido. In turn, Maduro called the head of parliament a US puppet. Russia, China, Turkey and a number of other countries have supported Maduro as a legitimate president. Moscow called Guido’s “presidential status” non-existent.