Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have pleaded not guilty to newly filed charges accusing them of conspiring to commit torture, as their criminal case continues in New York.
The couple appeared before a US court on Thursday following the addition of the charges to an indictment last week.
Maduro rejected the allegations, describing them as false, while Flores also maintained her innocence through a Spanish interpreter.
“I reject this document entirely,” Maduro told the court, prompting Judge Alvin Hellerstein to interrupt him and enter a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Flores separately told the court that she was innocent and denied the charges against her.
Prosecutors allege that Maduro and Flores established and sustained a system of violent repression in Venezuela that resulted in thousands of people being killed, intimidated and subjected to torture.
According to the indictment, the alleged abuses included electric shocks, suffocation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, confinement in punishment cells and psychological torture.
The US government further accuses Maduro of authorising torture against particular individuals and alleges that American citizens were among those targeted by the system.
Maduro and Flores were captured during a US military operation in January and subsequently transferred to New York, where they have remained in detention.
The latest allegations expand a case that initially centred on accusations of narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking and weapons-related offences.
Prosecutors have also accused Maduro, Flores, their son and alleged associates of participating in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy involving criminal organisations designated by the United States as terrorist groups.
The couple has challenged the prosecution, arguing that Maduro is entitled to sovereign immunity as Venezuela’s head of state. Their lawyers have also disputed the legality of his capture by US forces and are seeking to have the case dismissed.
Maduro has previously characterised the prosecution as an attempt by Washington to advance its interests in Venezuela, particularly its access to the country’s substantial oil reserves.
Meanwhile, Flores has unsuccessfully sought release on bond pending trial. Her lawyers argued that she was experiencing heart problems and other health complications while held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The trial is scheduled to begin in June 2027.
