Maduro denies torture charges in New York court, wife Flores pleads innocent
Ex-Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro told a New York court that new torture allegations in a revised indictment were "false accusations". Wife Cilia Flores also denied wrongdoing.
Maduro and Flores enter not-guilty pleas over state torture campaign
Nicolás Maduro appeared shackled at the ankles in a New York federal court on Thursday, insisting that torture allegations contained in a revised drug trafficking indictment were "false accusations and false testimony", theguardian.com reports.
Judge Alvin K Hellerstein entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of the deposed Venezuelan president after Maduro twice responded to requests to enter a plea by attacking the indictment's contents. Maduro spoke through an interpreter throughout the proceedings.
His wife, Cilia Flores, 70, entered her own denial. "I am completely innocent. I am not guilty," she said through an interpreter when asked to enter a plea.
Attorney Barry Pollack, speaking when the revised charges were announced last week, said Maduro, 63, denied all allegations and "looks forward to his day in court".
Rewritten indictment details systematic abuse
The revised indictment accuses the couple of overseeing a state-sponsored campaign of repression that tortured scores of victims, including three Americans. Maduro is alleged to have personally recommended torture methods — including beatings, asphyxiation and electric shocks — received updates on the treatment of specific detainees, and threatened to kill one prisoner's child as a form of psychological coercion.
Flores, a former attorney general, is accused of helping develop the repressive system and of ordering the torture of specific individuals.
The allegations stretch back to 2013, when Maduro assumed the presidency following the death of his mentor Hugo Chávez. Maduro has been under investigation by the International Criminal Court for years over alleged crimes against humanity linked to his crackdown on political opponents, and has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Rare prosecution of foreign officials
Both Maduro and Flores were seized from their Caracas home by US military personnel during a night-time raid in January. Earlier this year, both had already entered not-guilty pleas in a separate US narcotics case, which alleged they conspired to flood the United States with cocaine.
Their attorneys have argued that case should be dismissed on immunity grounds, given that the pair held the offices of head of state and first lady of a foreign country at the time of the alleged offences.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers agreed during Thursday's hearing that the trial date should move from 1 June to 14 June.
Torture is a crime under international law and can be prosecuted beyond the borders of the country where abuses occurred, regardless of the victims' nationality. However, the US prosecution of foreign officials remains exceedingly rare, having previously been brought only in a handful of cases — among them the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, Russians accused of war crimes in Ukraine, and a former prison warden from Bashar Assad's Syria.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)