Trial set for June 2027 as defense argues sovereign immunity
Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, appeared in federal court in New York on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to new charges of conspiracy to commit torture, according to BBC News reporting. The new charges were added last week to an indictment that already accuses Maduro of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, and weapons-related offenses.
Maduro and Flores were captured in January during a U.S. military raid and have been held in U.S. custody in New York since. The couple entered their not guilty pleas with each defendant addressing the court through a Spanish-language translator.
“I reject this document entirely,” Maduro said in Spanish through a translator, telling the court he denied the “false accusations and false testimony behind him.” Judge Alvin Hellerstein interrupted Maduro and declared the court would enter a plea of not guilty for him.
“I am completely innocent. I am not guilty,” Flores said through a translator. Both wore beige jail uniforms and appeared to have lost weight during their detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The new indictment alleges the couple “created and maintained a violent system of repression” in which “thousands of Venezuelans” were killed, harassed, and tortured. The filing enumerates alleged torture methods including electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture.
Prosecutors also charge that Maduro authorized torture “against specific individuals” and allege that U.S. citizens were tortured under the system. The new counts supplement an earlier indictment that accused Maduro, his wife and son, and their accomplices of engaging in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and partnering with cartels designated as terrorist groups.
Maduro has previously characterized the U.S. charges as a tool to advance “imperial” plans for accessing Venezuela’s oil reserves. He and Flores have argued throughout the case that Maduro is the leader of a sovereign country and therefore immune from prosecution, contending that the U.S. seizure of him by force was illegal.
Flores had previously petitioned a judge to allow her release on bond while awaiting trial, citing heart problems and other health issues during her detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. That request was unsuccessful.
Trial is scheduled for June 2027 in federal court in New York before Judge Hellerstein.