Venezuelan official: Caracas councilman dies in jail

A jailed councilman in Venezuela arrested on suspicion of involvement in a failed assassination attempt on President Nicolas Maduro has died of suicide, the government said Monday.

The official suicide claim drew a swift denial from opposition leaders close to Fernando Alban.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that Alban had been jailed since late last week. He represented a district in the Caracas area.

More than two dozen people have been jailed on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot in early August to kill Maduro using two drones loaded with explosives.

Opposition leader Julio Borges said Alban was a personal friend and cast doubts on the suicide claim.

Borges said that as a deep Catholic and family man Alban would never consider killing himself.

“We condemn the death of Fernando Alban, the direct responsibility of a torturing and homicidal regime,” tweeted Organization of American States head Luis Almagro. “This criminal dictatorship should leave Venezuela now.”

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Corrects name to Fernando Alban.