Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Celia Flores, are due to appear in federal court in Manhattan today on a revised indictment that accuses them of participating in a state-sponsored campaign of repression and torture. The document says dozens of people, including three American citizens, are among the victims, the Associated Press reported, BTA reports.
The two are expected to plead not guilty to the new charges, added to an earlier drug trafficking case. Maduro and Flores were detained in January by US troops in a nighttime raid on their home in Caracas. Last week, the former president's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said his 63-year-old client denies the charges and "looks forward to presenting his defense in court."
According to the revised indictment, Maduro oversaw a system in which detainees were beaten, suffocated and subjected to electric shocks. He is accused of personally recommending torture methods, receiving information about the treatment of certain victims and threatening to kill the child of one of the prisoners for psychological abuse.
The document also alleges that Cilia Flores, 69, a former attorney general of Venezuela, participated in building the repressive system and ordered the torture of specific individuals.
Maduro was president of Venezuela from 2013 until his arrest in January. The International Criminal Court has been investigating him for years on charges of crimes against humanity related to the repression of his political opponents. He has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Earlier this year, Maduro and his wife also pleaded not guilty in a US drug trafficking case in which they are accused of conspiring to flood the US market with cocaine. Their lawyers are pushing for the case to be dismissed, arguing that they enjoy immunity as former head of state and first lady of a foreign country. The new indictment covers allegations of torture dating back to 2013, the year Maduro inherited the presidency from his political mentor Hugo Chavez, who died of cancer.