The son of Venezuela’s captured president Nicolas Maduro, whose father appeared in a New York court on Thursday, told AFP that he trusts the US legal system, but said the case had been compromised by the “abduction” of his parents.

“We trust the legal system of the United States,” Nicolas Maduro Guerra, a lawmaker also known as “Nicolasito” or “Little Nicolas,” said in Caracas.

At the same time, he noted that the legal process has shown signs of illegitimacy from the very beginning “due to the seizure, the abduction of an elected president during a military operation.”

Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro appeared in a New York court for the second time on Thursday since being captured by US forces during a nighttime raid.

The 63-year-old Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn prison for nearly three months after US special forces abducted the couple from their residence in Caracas in early January.