CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela's Supreme Court has reopened
                  a corruption case against former president Jaime Lusinchi, saying the
                  allegations were improperly dismissed by a lower court.

                  The court ruled late Thursday that the case, which involves allegations of
                  theft of funds from the National Horseracing Institute, was illegally thrown
                  out in 1997.

                  The lower court said in its ruling that the statute of limitations on the case had
                  expired. But the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the lower court had
                  used the wrong year in determining when the five-year statute of limitations
                  began.

                  Lusinchi, who has mainly been living in exile in Costa Rica since leaving the
                  presidency in 1989, returned to Venezuela this week and immediately
                  charged that the decision was part of a campaign by the government of
                  President Hugo Chavez to persecute its political opponents.

                  The ruling "constitutes a flagrant violation of the rule of law," Lusinchi told
                  The Associated Press.

                  Chavez, traveling in Asia this week to drum up business for Venezuela's
                  ailing economy, said corruption cases that were thrown out against both
                  Lusinchi and former president Carlos Andres Perez should be reopened.

                  "They should both be in jail," Chavez said.

                  In 1992, the Supreme Court shelved a separate corruption case against
                  Lusinchi, provoking an outcry that the court was bending to pressure from
                  his powerful political party, Democratic Action. One justice resigned and a
                  group of Venezuela's leading intellectuals called for the rest of the court to
                  do the same.

                  Though Lusinchi has never been never convicted, his former mistress, Blanca
                  Ibanez, who is now his wife, eventually was found guilty on corruption
                  charges.

                  After Lusinchi left the presidency the two fled to Costa Rica, where Ibanez
                  was granted political asylum.

                  Perez was impeached in 1993 and convicted on corruption charges a year
                  later. He spent 28 months under house arrest. A separate corruption case
                  against him was dropped after he won a Senate seat last November and
                  gained parliamentary immunity.

                  A powerful Constitutional Assembly controlled by Chavez supporters has
                  declared a "judicial emergency" aimed at cleaning up what many
                  Venezuelans say is a deeply corrupt court system. The assembly has helped
                  push through the dismissal or suspension of more than 100 judges.

                  The president of the assembly, Luis Miquilena, said last week that the
                  assembly itself was considering reopening the corruption cases against the
                  two former presidents.

                  He also said the assembly might include in the new constitution it is writing a
                  prohibition against the expiration of cases involving theft or misuse of public
                  funds.

                  Critics charge that the assembly is overstepping its legal bounds and that its
                  mission is limited to writing the constitution.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.