Maduro rips ‘false accusations,’ pleads not guilty to new torture charge
Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro pleaded not guilty Thursday in Manhattan federal court to a new torture conspiracy charge, part of a superseding indictment accusing Maduro of directing torture against political rivals and three U.S. citizens. Maduro called the charges false accusations and false testimony, and Judge Alvin Hellerstein cut him off to take his plea.
Prosecutors allege the abuse, dating to 2006, included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, and forced nudity, and describe one 2022 case in which a detained American was force-fed a vomit-inducing liquid and shocked. The trial date moved just two weeks, from June 1 to June 14, 2027, despite the gravity of the new allegations.
Maduro and Flores were captured by U.S. military forces in January after being charged with running an international cocaine trafficking operation, a raid critics likened to an act of war.
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