Venezuelan prosecutor seeks conditional release for Utah man
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s chief prosecutor on Friday requested the conditional release of a Utah man and his wife detained for over a year on weapons charges in a case that has further rankled already tense relations with the U.S.
The petition to have Joshua Holt and his wife Thamara Candelo freed but barred from leaving Venezuela while awaiting trial was made because of what the prosecutor’s office said were repeated delays by the court overseeing the case.
Prosecutors also requested that they be allowed to verify the couples’ health in the Caracas facility run by Venezuela’s intelligence police where they are being held alongside some of President Nicolas Maduro’s fiercest opponents.
Holt, 25, travelled to Venezuela in June 2016 and married Candelo, a Venezuelan woman he met online while practicing Spanish. Both are Mormons and Holt had planned to spend several months in Caracas with her and her two daughters to secure their visas so they could move with him to the U.S.