A Venezuelan appeals court in Caracas on Friday upheld the more than 13-year sentence of opposition leader Leopoldo López. The sentencing [El Universal report, in Spanish] of the Corte de Apelaciones del Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (TSJ) [official website, in Spanish] can and will be appealed [El Pais report, in Spanish] to the country’s highest court, and the legal team has resorted to appeal [Anadolu Agency report] to international organizations. Amnesty International UK (AIUK) this week created a petition [AIUK backgrounder] to put pressure on President Nicolas Maduro’s regime to free López and an international campaign, Free Leopoldo [advocacy website], has continued to urge for his immediate release.

The tension between the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government in Venezuela has served as a hostile condition against López. In March Venezuela’s National Assembly approved [JURIST report] an amnesty law that would free 77 individuals allegedly jailed for political reasons under a number of crimes, including López, but Maduro has vowed to veto the law. In November UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for [JURIST report] the protection of political opposition leaders associated with an assassinated Venezuelan opposition leader while he was on state with López’s wife, Lilian Tintori. In October, a former Caracas prosecutor confessed [JURIST report] to being pressured into presenting false evidence to condemn opposition leader López.