Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been additionally charged by the U.S. with conspiracy to commit torture, with their trial scheduled for June next year.
On 8 Oct 2026 GMT+7, U.S. prosecutors revealed that 63-year-old former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his 69-year-old wife, Cilia Flores, face new charges of “conspiracy to commit torture,” supplementing earlier accusations of drug trafficking and arms offenses, as well as terrorism charges against Flores related to narcotics. Both have denied all allegations.
The couple has been held at a detention center in Brooklyn since U.S. forces arrested them at their Caracas residence in January. The court denied Flores’s bail request to house arrest, and the trial is set to commence in June 2027 GMT+7.
The indictment accuses Maduro and Flores of maintaining power by establishing a system to oppress political opponents and unlawfully detain individuals, including torture of detainees and American citizens.
The alleged torture methods include electric shocks, suffocation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged solitary confinement, starvation, punishment cell confinement, and psychological torture such as threats to kill detainees’ families and children.
Prosecutors state that Flores played a key role in ordering and receiving reports on the torture of prisoners to protect her own family members involved in illicit activities.
Following Maduro’s U.S. arrest, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez assumed acting leadership with support from the Trump administration and issued pardons releasing hundreds of political prisoners. However, human rights group Foro Penal reports that over 300 prisoners remain detained.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned that reports of torture against detainees continue despite Maduro’s absence, highlighting ongoing structural human rights problems yet to be resolved.
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Source:bbc