{"id":253810,"date":"2026-01-20T06:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/253810\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:50:09","slug":"irish-citizen-freed-from-venezuelan-prison-arrives-in-prague-after-wave-of-releases-following-maduros-capture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/253810\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish citizen freed from Venezuelan prison arrives in Prague after wave of releases following Maduro\u2019s capture"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of a flow of prisoner releases following the capture of Nicolas Maduro by the US on January 3.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs told the Irish Independent that the department is \u201caware of the case\u201d and has “provided consular assistance to the citizen involved\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with all cases, the department does not comment on individual cases,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

According to the Reuters report, an Irish citizen arrived at Prague airport in the Czech Republic last night.<\/p>\n

Venezuela freed European citizens from Czechia, Hungary, the Netherlands and Germany imprisoned in the country, their governments said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Czech foreign minister, Petr Macinka, said the Czech citizen had been released together with imprisoned nationals from Ireland, Romania, Germany, Albania, Ukraine and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The Czech man, who was released, had been detained in 2024 when Venezuelan authorities accused him of planning to take part in a plot to kill Maduro, who was still in power as president, and overthrow the government, the Czech media reported.<\/p>\n

\"Nicolas<\/p>\n

Nicolas Maduro after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by federal agents, as they make their way to courthouse in Manhattan (Photo: XNY\/Star Max\/GC Images)<\/p>\n

News in 90 Seconds, Monday January 19<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan human rights group, Foro Penal, said he was detained for political reasons, and the Czech foreign ministry said last year the man had been imprisoned \u201cwithout charges and a fair trial\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Germany\u2019s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, confirmed on social media that three German nationals were released from custody in Venezuela on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, he said it was a \u201cgesture towards more constructive relations\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands said three Dutch people had been freed, while Hungary said a Hungarian citizen, who had been on a research vessel, had also been released.<\/p>\n

The president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, and US President Donald Trump had both said large numbers of prisoners would be released after the US captured Maduro earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Last week, Venezuela said more than 400 people had been released, while the rights groups say the figure is smaller.<\/p>\n

(Additional reporting by Jason Hovet, Jan Lopatka, Anita Komuves, Thomas Seythal, and Bart Meijer for Reuters)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is part of a flow of prisoner releases following the capture of Nicolas Maduro by the US…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2540,42,43,6166,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-253810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-adrianna-wrona","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-reuters","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}