The founder of Popular Will, one of the most hardline of the parties opposing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Lopez was sentenced on charges of inciting unrest at anti-government protests that left 43 people dead in 2014.
"The appeal was declared inadmissible. It is a reality and an act of absolute injustice," defense lawyer Juan Carlos Gutierrez yesterday told AFP, adding that the case is closed in Venezuela and can be appealed only to international bodies.
The ruling on the appeal -- filed in July -- came a day after Trump received Lopez's wife Lilian Tintori at the White House.
The government called Tintori's meeting with Trump an "intrusion and aggression."
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Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez blamed Venezuelan opposition "lobbies" within "the Miami mafia."
"While President Maduro proposed starting a new era of respectful relations, Donald Trump is in solidarity with the leader of violent actions," he said.
Lopez was the most prominent of a hundred prisoners arrested for the 2014 protests.
Yesterday's ruling "not only condemns an innocent man, which is serious in itself, but destroys what little remains of the rule of law in Venezuela," Gutierrez said. "It is not a legal act but a political one."
Also yesterday, Venezuela said it would stop CNN's Spanish-language service from broadcasting over the internet, 24 hours after ordering cable services to take it off the air, accusing the outlet of "war propaganda."
Cable operators dropped CNN en Espanol -- Latin America's main news channel -- on Wednesday days after the news network broadcast an investigation into alleged fraud in granting Venezuelan passports and visas.
The opposition blames Maduro for an economic crisis that has prompted riots and looting due to shortages of food, medicine and other staples.
Maduro blames the crisis on a US-backed capitalist conspiracy.
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