Maduro and Wife Return to New York Court on Added Torture Conspiracy Charges

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores returned to federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to face a rewritten indictment that adds a charge of conspiracy to commit torture. The new count alleges they oversaw a system that used beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation, and other methods against political opponents and detainees, including three United States citizens.

Prosecutors unsealed the additional charge on 8 October. The indictment states that from at least 1999 through 2025 Maduro authorised the use of torture against specific individuals and supervised a broader apparatus of arbitrary detention and violence. It alleges he personally recommended methods, received updates on particular victims, and threatened to kill one prisoner’s child as psychological pressure. Flores is accused of helping develop the system and of ordering the torture of certain people.

One American identified in court papers as Victim-7 was allegedly hooded, beaten, forced to eat his own vomit, and later subjected to electric shocks to the genitals, partial suffocation, and injections that induced seizures during eight and a half months in detention. Other victims are described as having been punched, electrocuted, and held in prolonged isolation. Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack has said his client denies the charges and looks forward to his day in court.

Maduro and Flores were seized from Caracas in a US military raid in January 2026 and have pleaded not guilty to earlier narcoterrorism, drug-trafficking, and weapons charges. They remain held without bail. A trial on the original counts is scheduled for June 2027. The new torture count was added while a bail application for Flores, who has a heart condition, was under consideration; the judge denied house arrest.

The updated indictment expands the case beyond drug trafficking to include alleged state-sponsored repression. US Attorney Jamie McDonald described the conduct as unthinkable and said the government would pursue accountability for American victims. Venezuelan officials and Maduro’s defence have continued to argue that the former head of state enjoys sovereign immunity, a claim the prosecution has rejected on the ground that Venezuela has not asserted immunity on their behalf.

Separate civil actions are also pending. A Miami jury awarded $314 million in damages earlier this year to three Americans who said they were tortured while detained in Venezuela. Families of other victims have filed suits in Brooklyn federal court alleging that Maduro directed special forces to carry out extrajudicial killings between 2017 and 2021. Those civil cases proceed independently of the criminal prosecution in Manhattan.