Rewritten indictment ties Maduro, Flores to alleged torture of three Americans
Nicolás Maduro told a New York federal court on Thursday that new torture allegations contained in a rewritten drug-trafficking indictment against him were “false accusations,” while the judge entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf and his wife’s after both refused to enter one themselves.
Maduro, 63, appeared in court shackled at the ankles for the hearing before Judge Alvin K Hellerstein, who announced he was entering the plea on Maduro’s behalf after Maduro twice responded to the request to plead by criticizing the indictment, saying it contained “false accusations and false testimony”. Maduro spoke through an interpreter. His wife, Cilia Flores, 70, separately told the court through an interpreter: “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”
The rewritten indictment accuses the couple of leading a state-sponsored campaign of repression that tortured scores of victims, including three Americans. According to the document, Maduro oversaw a violent torture system that beat, asphyxiated, and delivered electric shocks to its victims. The indictment alleges he personally recommended torture methods, received updates on specific victims’ treatment, and threatened to kill one prisoner’s child as a form of psychological torture.
Flores, a former Venezuelan attorney general, allegedly helped develop the repressive system and ordered the torture of some specific people, the indictment alleges.
Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, said when the charges were announced last week that Maduro denied them and “looks forward to his day in court.”
Maduro served as Venezuela’s president from 2013 until his capture in January, when he and Flores were seized from their Caracas home by the US military in a night-time raid. He has been under investigation by the International Criminal Court for years over allegations of crimes against humanity, and has always denied wrongdoing.
During Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors told Hellerstein that lawyers on both sides want the trial date moved from 1 June to 14 June. The revised indictment covers allegations of torture stretching back to Maduro’s ascent to the presidency in 2013, when he took over from his mentor Hugo Chávez, who died of cancer that year.
Torture is a crime under international law and can be prosecuted outside the country where the abuse occurred and regardless of the victims’ nationality. The prosecution of foreign officials in the United States is exceedingly rare, having been tried only a few times — including against the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, Russians responsible for war crimes in Ukraine, and a former prison warden in Bashar Assad’s Syria.
Earlier this year, Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty in the US drug case, which alleged they conspired to flood the United States with cocaine. Their attorneys have argued the case should be dismissed on immunity grounds because they were the leader and first lady of a foreign country at the time of the alleged conduct.