White House / President·Justice
Update: Maduro and Flores charged with conspiring to torture Americans; judge denies Flores’s bid for release
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed a superseding indictment Thursday charging former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiracy to commit torture, accusing them of overseeing a system of repression that tortured detainees, including more than a dozen U.S. citizens, with “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape” and other abuse, CBS News and Fox News reported. The charge carries up to life in prison if any torture resulted in death and up to 20 years if not, Fox reported. At a hearing the same day, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores’s request for release to home confinement over a heart condition; the couple have pleaded not guilty to the earlier charges, and trial is set for June 2027.