Maduro pleads not responsible to further expenses in New York

Venezuela’s former chief Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores, appeared in court docket on Thursday to plead not responsible to new expenses of conspiracy to commit torture.

The US authorities initially accused Maduro of narco-terrorism, drug trafficking and weapons-related offenses, earlier than including new expenses towards him and Flores final week.

Maduro and Flores had been captured in January throughout a US navy raid, after which they had been taken to New York, the place they continue to be in jail.

The couple has pleaded not responsible to the allegations and each have argued to have the case thrown out on the grounds that they qualify for sovereign immunity. Their trial is scheduled for June 2027.

In a brand new indictment final week, authorities prosecutors alleged Maduro and Flores “created and maintained a violent system of repression” that noticed “1000’s of Venezuelans” killed, harassed, and tortured.

Nicolas Maduro denied the brand new expenses introduced towards him by the US authorities, telling a court docket on Thursday he denied the “false accusations and false testimony towards me.”

“I reject this doc completely,” Maduro mentioned in Spanish by means of a translator.

Decide Alvin Hellerstein interrupted Maduro, and declared the court docket would enter a plea of not responsible for Maduro.

“I’m utterly harmless. I’m not responsible,” Flores mentioned by means of a translator.

Maduro and Flores wore beige jail uniforms and each seem to have misplaced weight throughout their detention in Brooklyn.

The alleged torture strategies included “electrical shock, asphyxiation, rape, pressured nudity, extended isolation, hunger, punishment cells, and psychological torture”, the indictment states.

The US additionally accused Maduro of authorising the usage of torture “towards particular people” and alleges US residents had been tortured underneath this technique.

Prosecutors have already got accused Maduro, his spouse and son, and their accomplices of participating in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and partnering with cartels designated as terrorist teams.

Maduro beforehand known as such expenses a instrument to additional “imperial” plans for gaining access to Venezuela’s wealthy oil reserves.

He and his spouse’s legal professionals have argued that Maduro is the chief of a sovereign nation and subsequently immune from prosecution. They contend the US taking him by pressure is illegitimate.

Flores unsuccessfully petitioned a decide to permit her to be launched on bond whereas she awaited trial, arguing she had coronary heart issues and different well being points whereas detained on the infamous Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn.