A group of Venezuelan opposition figures have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe President Nicolas Maduro and others for "crimes against humanity" including alleged murder and torture, exiled dissident Carlos Vecchio said Wednesday.
"Yesterday we formally presented a request for the court to open a preliminary inquiry into high-ranking officials, especially Maduro, because we consider that they have committed crimes against humanity," Vecchio told reporters in Madrid.
The move, confirmed by an ICC source, comes just weeks before December 6 legislative elections in Venezuela, which some polls say the opposition may win as people in the oil-rich country suffer runaway inflation and shortages of basic goods.
"We are faced with a case of crimes... that involve murders, torture, illegal detentions, persecution, inhuman treatment," said Vecchio, the coordinator of opposition party Popular Will, whose leader Leopoldo Lopez is in prison.
The request to the Hague-based court, involving eight officials including Maduro, was made in the name of a group of alleged victims of the current regime, including Vecchio.
It lists more than 30 alleged murders, 3,700 detentions that the opposition considers illegal, nearly 400 suspected cases of torture and some 800 people allegedly injured since February 2014 when deadly nationwide protests against Maduro's government broke out.
The prosecutor's office at the ICC has up to six months to decide whether to accept requests it receives, but Vecchio said his complaint was urgent as the elections near.
Maduro is also due to make a speech on Thursday at the UN's Human Rights Council, of which Venezuela is a member, in Geneva.
- Justice a 'government tool' -
Vecchio's announcement came a day after the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) regional grouping questioned whether the forthcoming polls would be transparent and fair.
Last month, Venezuela rejected a request from the OAS to send an observer mission to monitor the elections.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro pointed out that Lopez was languishing in jail, adding that opposition parties were having trouble getting air time on media.
Some candidates have been disqualified and opposition parties are also having trouble getting access to campaign funding, he wrote in an 18-page letter to the head of the Venezuelan electoral commission.
Vecchio said the request to the ICC was a way to focus "the attention at an international level on the atmosphere that Nicolas Maduro has created, practically calling for violence in case we win."
He was referring to declarations made last month by the Venezuelan leader, who said that if the opposition won a parliamentary majority in the polls, his party "would defend the revolution... and the revolution would enter a new stage."
Vecchio was forced to escape Venezuela last year after an arrest warrant was issued accusing him of crimes linked to the protests that included arson and criminal damage, and he now lives in Florida.
He added that his group had decided to turn to the ICC because Venezuela's "judicial system has turned into a government tool for persecution" of the opposition, pointing to recent declarations by former prosecutor Franklin Nieves.
Nieves worked on Lopez's case, and said an army general made him issue an arrest warrant for the opposition leader under orders from Maduro.
He has fled Venezuela with his family after being threatened with firing or jail if he did not stand by what he has dubbed the "false evidence" used to convict Lopez of inciting violence.