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CARACAS, Venezuela – Six US oil executives detained for three years in Venezuela were convicted of corruption and were immediately sentenced to prison.
The judge’s decision on Thursday came with sentences of more than eight years for each accused.
The verdicts dashed those relatives’ hopes for an early release that would send the men back to their homes in the United States.
The so-called Citgo 6 was lured to Venezuela three years ago for a business meeting and arrested. They are employees of the Houston-based refining company Citgo, which is owned by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company PDVSA.
Lawyers and relatives of the leaders say the men were wrongly convicted.
“We, the family, are heartbroken to be even more separated from our loved ones,” Alirio Rafael Zambrano, whose two brothers were among the accused, told The Associated Press. “We pray that the leaders of our nation will step forward and continue to fight tirelessly for their freedom and human rights.”
A lawyer who represented three of the defendants called the judge’s decision “null and void.”
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