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REUTERS
CARACAS
AN APPEAL hearing into Venezuela's most prominent jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez ended on Saturday, with he and supporters saying the nearly 14-year sentence for inciting violence should be immediately overturned.
"I am innocent of the crimes accused," said Lopez, a hardline foe of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government who has been in jail since February 2014.
"I assume my full responsibility for denouncing the Venezuelan state as corrupt, inefficient, anti-democratic and repressive, as it is my constitutional right to do," he added.
Lopez's party Popular Will said only his mother and one lawyer were allowed into the Appeals Court for the session which began on Friday and ended around 2 a.m. local time (0600 GMT) Saturday.
Outside the court in downtown Caracas, supporters waited with banners demanding"Free Leopoldo!", while security officers kept watch of the area where government and opposition supporters have clashed during previous hearings in the Lopez case.
A decision on the appeal is due in 10 days, his party said, though there was no word from the judiciary or government.
Lopez was imprisoned for fomenting 2014 anti-government protests that spiraled into violence, killing 43 people on both sides. His supporters and rights groups say his imprisonment was a travesty of justice.
Lopez was accused of causing damages and fire, public incitement, and planning to commit crimes.
Though the Harvard-educated Lopez had publicly called for peaceful resistance to the Maduro government and was behind bars during most of the unrest.
