On March 13 local time, former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared at a New York court to face new charges in a rewritten drug-trafficking indictment, in which he and his wife, Cilia Flores, are accused of leading a state-sponsored repression campaign and torturing multiple victims, including three Americans. At the hearing, Maduro said the torture allegations were "false accusations."
According to information presented at the hearing, Maduro was shackled at the ankles when he was brought to court. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of Maduro and his wife. Earlier, when asked to enter his own plea, Maduro twice refused and instead criticized the indictment, saying it contained "false allegations and untrue statements." He spoke through an interpreter.
Attorney Barry Pollack said that when the charges were unsealed last week, Maduro, 63, denied them and "looks forward to his day in court."
According to the rewritten indictment, Maduro is accused of overseeing a violent torture system involving beatings, suffocation and electric shocks against victims. He is also accused of personally proposing torture methods, receiving updates on the condition of individual victims and threatening to kill a prisoner's child as a form of psychological torture.
Flores, 70, a former Venezuelan attorney general, is accused of helping develop the repression system and ordering the torture of specific individuals. When asked to enter a plea, she said through an interpreter: "I am completely innocent. I committed no crime."
Maduro served as Venezuela's president from 2013 until he was seized by U.S. forces in a nighttime raid on his home in Caracas in January. He has been under investigation by the International Criminal Court for years over allegations of crimes against humanity linked to crackdowns on opponents. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
During the hearing, prosecutors said lawyers for both sides wanted to move the trial date from June 1 to June 14.
Torture is a crime under international law and can be prosecuted outside the country where the acts occurred, regardless of the victims' nationality. However, prosecuting foreign officials in the United States is extremely rare, having been done only a few times, including the case of the son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, Russian perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine and a former prison guard under Bashar Assad in Syria.
Earlier this year, Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty in a U.S. drug case accusing them of conspiring to flood the United States with cocaine. Their lawyers have argued the case should be dismissed on immunity grounds because they were leaders and first lady of a foreign country.
The revised indictment covers torture allegations dating back to Maduro's rise to power in 2013, when he succeeded his predecessor Hugo Chávez, who died of cancer the same year.
