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A judge postponed again on Tuesday the hearing scheduled for a Utah man held in a Venezuelan prison since June — making it the fourth delay in the case by the country's courts.

Josh Holt, a 24-year-old Riverton man, was jailed in Venezuela on June 30 on suspicion of weapons charges. Though he has had a hearing set each month since September, all four have now ended with a rescheduled date — the next one slated for mid-January.

"This time they said they are changing the judge," said Holt's father, Jason Holt, in a post on Facebook, "what I think is just another ploy to push back the date for another four weeks until the next 'pretend' hearing that they will not have again."

Josh Holt traveled to the country to marry Thamara Caleno, a Mormon woman he met online in January to practice Spanish, and to whom he proposed five months later in the Dominican Republic. They planned to return to Salt Lake City once Caleno obtained a visa.

After a June honeymoon in Ecuador, the two were arrested on accusations that Josh Holt was a spy and had stockpiled guns and grenades in Caleno's apartment — which Holt's parents deny. Both of the newlyweds remain in jail.

Jason Holt called on the Venezuelan government Tuesday to "drop these ridiculous, fabricated charges." His wife, Laurie Holt, has lobbied for their son's release, speaking with Utah Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee, and Rep. Mia Love.

Laurie Holt has published an op-ed in The Washington Post and directly written to Venezuela's president President Nicolas Maduro. She worries that jail wardens have mistreated her son and has previously said that Josh Holt, one of 12 U.S. citizens jailed in Venezuela, was coughing blood and having trouble breathing.

She believes officials of the country have confused Josh Holt's LDS mission in Everett, Wash., with Washington, D.C. — taking him as a political hostage under the belief that he was involved with the U.S. government. Meanwhile, Caleno's two kids, ages 5 and 8, have been staying with family while their mother is incarcerated.

"My heart is broken," Laurie Holt wrote on social media Tuesday in response to the latest delay. "I can't believe this."

ctanner@sltrib.com Twitter: @CourtneyLTanner