Venezuela's top opposition leader Manuel Rosales gestures during a press conference organized by opposition governors and mayors to proclaim their peaceful resistance to President Hugo Chavez, in Caracas, on March 25, 2009. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)
Omar Barboza said Rosales had moved to "a safe place" to avoid arrest by the government which has requested that he be tried on charges of illicit enrichment while behind bars.
"It is not possible for Manuel Rosales to exercise his right to defend himself in Venezuela," Barboza said.
Opposition leaders call the case against Rosales a witch-hunt and a threat to groups that challenge Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution and what they say is a selective use of justice in a country where corruption is rampant. Chavez's government says the case is a simple corruption investigation.
