US adds torture charges against Maduro, wife in New York case
What's new: Prosecutors say the couple oversaw abuses including electric shocks and asphyxiation, and both face trial in June 2027.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday added torture charges to the criminal case against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, alleging they helped run a system that abused detainees, including Americans, to keep power. The superseding indictment in New York adds the new counts to existing drug trafficking and weapons-related charges that the couple has denied. Prosecutors alleged torture methods included electric shocks, beatings, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, starvation, isolation and threats against prisoners' families. Flores also lost her bid to leave jail for house arrest. Maduro and Flores have been held in Brooklyn since their January capture in Caracas, and their trial is scheduled to begin in June 2027.