Maduro pleads not guilty to new torture-related charges in New York
"I reject this document entirely," Maduro said in court, responding to newly added torture-related charges.
Maduro pleads not guilty to new torture-related charges in New York
Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared in court on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to fresh charges of conspiracy to commit torture.
The US government had first accused Maduro of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons-related offenses, before adding new charges against him and Flores last week.
Maduro and Flores were captured in January during a US military raid and then taken to New York, where they remain in jail.
The pair has pleaded not guilty to the accusations, and both have argued that the case should be dismissed because they are entitled to sovereign immunity. Their trial is set for June 2027.
In a new indictment filed last week, prosecutors said Maduro and Flores “created and maintained a violent system of repression” that led to “thousands of Venezuelans” being killed, harassed and tortured.
Nicolas Maduro rejected the new charges brought by the US government, telling the court on Thursday that he denied the “false accusations and false testimony behind him.”
“I reject this document entirely,” Maduro said in Spanish through a translator.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein cut Maduro off and said the court would enter a not guilty plea for him.
“I am completely innocent. I am not guilty,” Flores said through a translator.
Maduro and Flores wore beige jail uniforms and both appear to have lost weight during their detention in Brooklyn.
According to the indictment, the alleged torture methods included “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture”.
The US also accused Maduro of authorising torture “against specific individuals” and said US citizens were tortured under this system.
Prosecutors have already accused Maduro, his wife and son, and their accomplices of taking part in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and working with cartels designated as terrorist groups.
Maduro has previously described such charges as a tool to advance “imperial” plans to gain access to Venezuela’s rich oil reserves.
He and his wife’s lawyers have argued that Maduro is the leader of a sovereign country and is therefore immune from prosecution. They say the US taking him by force is illegal.
Flores previously failed in a bid to be released on bond while awaiting trial, arguing that she had heart problems and other health issues while being held at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.