A Manhattan superseding indictment charges Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores with conspiring to torture opponents and Americans. A judge denied Flores's request to be released before a June 2027 trial.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday filed a superseding indictment in Manhattan charging ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiracy to commit torture. The count is in addition to drug-trafficking and weapons charges the couple already faced and have denied.
Reuters reported that the new indictment describes alleged torture of nine people, including three U.S. citizens. The BBC, citing the indictment, listed methods prosecutors allege were used, including electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, isolation, starvation and threats against relatives. Those are prosecution allegations, not findings.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been held in Brooklyn since January, after U.S. forces seized them in Caracas on 3 January. They have pleaded not guilty to the original charges and had not yet entered pleas to the new indictment, Reuters said. If convicted of all counts, each would face a mandatory minimum of 50 years.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores's request to be released before trial on health grounds. The trial is scheduled for 1 June 2027. Barry Pollack, Maduro's lawyer, told the BBC his client denies the new charges and looks forward to his day in court.
Thursday's filing adds a count and keeps both defendants in custody. It is not a conviction.
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- Barry Pollack said Maduro denies the new charges and looks forward to his day in court.
- Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Cilia Flores's request to be released before trial.