A British court has ruled in favor of Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuelan government in the legal fight over the $1 billion in gold held by the Bank of England (BOE).

As previously reported by BeInCrypto, Venezuela filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the BOE and claimed that the central bank refused to release the gold owed.

The bullion in question has, in part, been contested because U.S. officials successfully lobbied their British counterparts to block withdrawal attempts last year. This action was taken due to the government’s position that Maduro is not the country’s legitimate leader.

Last year, the U.K. government stated that it recognized Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s interim president until new, “credible” elections can be held. This was a position held by the United States, Canada, Brazil, and several other Latin American and European countries.

Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and several other states support Maduro as the country’s elected president.

According to a Bloomberg report, on Monday, Oct 5, judges reversed a lower court ruling that the U.K. had recognized opposition leader Guaido as interim president.

Per Bloomberg,

the government’s statements on Guaido may not have reflected the reality on the ground,

the justices said. One, in particular, Judge Stephen Males, called the U.K.’s previous recognition, “ambiguous, or at any rate less than unequivocal.”

Representatives of the Maduro-appointed central bank said the previous ruling had created an “unrealistic” situation. Their statement concluded,

the administration in control of the mint and day-to-day operations of the central bank in Caracas, were being told that they could no longer deal with very substantial central bank deposits in London.

This news comes just days after shortages of water, electricity, and other basic necessities were, once again, causing protests to sweep a country beset by years of political turmoil. At the time of this writing, the Guaido administration has not commented on the decision.

The post Maduro Wins U.K. Court Appeal Over Contested Venezuelan Gold appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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