Venezuela Sends Opposition Politician to Jail for 2 Years

A Venezuelan court Wednesday sentenced opposition figure Oswaldo Alvarez to two years in prison for disseminating false information during a television show in March 2010, prosecutors said.

In a statement, prosecutors said Alvarez, a former governor of Zulia state, was convicted for saying that "Venezuela had become a drug trafficking hub."

Prosecutors had accused Alvarez of the crimes of instigating hatred and providing false information.

Alvarez denied committing any crime and said his lawyers will appeal the ruling.

He said his sentencing was part of the "process of criminalizing political dissent."

Alvarez was governor of Zulia between 1990 and 1993 and ran for president in 1993. In recent years he has become one of the biggest critics of the government of leftist President Hugo Chavez.