The United States authorizes Venezuela to pay for Nicolas Maduros legal fees.

The US government has given the green light for Venezuela to pay for the legal fees of Nicolas Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan president held by the United States on January 3, according to AFP.

The American administration had previously prevented the Venezuelan state from paying the legal fees of the Maduro couple, due to international sanctions on the country.

Nicolas Maduro’s defense and his wife Cilia Flores had sought to have the indictment annulled, arguing that denying an accused person access to a lawyer of their choice is a violation of a right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution. However, the Treasury Department has removed this obstacle and will allow “the defense lawyers to receive payments from the government of Venezuela under certain conditions,” wrote New York prosecutor Jay Clayton to the judge in charge of the case, Alvin Hellerstein, in a letter dated Friday. He stated that the defense acknowledges a concession and for now withdraws its request for annulment.

Four charges have been brought against Maduro. He was detained in Caracas last January with his wife during a US military operation involving about 150 aircraft and helicopters in addition to ground troops. He is facing charges of “narcoterrorism conspiracy,” “cocaine importation conspiracy,” “possession of machine guns and destructive devices,” and “conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices,” according to Reuters.

The former president denies the allegations against him.