US prosecutors unsealed a superseding indictment Thursday charging ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores with conspiring to torture political opponents and American citizens, adding to the drug trafficking case the couple already faced. The indictment details alleged torture against nine people, including three US citizens, describing beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation and psychological threats. Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack said his client denies the new charges and looks forward to his day in court; Flores’s lawyers questioned why prosecutors revealed the indictment, returned under seal by a grand jury on Tuesday, only shortly before Thursday’s hearing.
The couple, captured January 3 in their Caracas home during a US military operation ordered by President Trump, pleaded not guilty to the original drug charges. They have not yet entered pleas to the new indictment, and both face a mandatory minimum of 50 years if convicted on all counts. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein separately denied Flores’s request for release ahead of a trial scheduled for next year, citing health concerns raised by her lawyers.