Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were due in a U.S. court Thursday to answer a new indictment accusing them of conspiring to torture political opponents.
Prosecutors added the torture counts last week, expanding a case that already charged the couple with abusing power to help ship cocaine. Maduro, 63, and Flores, 70, previously pleaded not guilty to the drug charges. Their lawyers say they deny the torture allegations as well.
The case is one of the highest-profile foreign-leader prosecutions in recent U.S. history and comes as Washington continues to pressure the Maduro network after his removal from power.
Sources: Reuters via Devdiscourse. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Kjetil Ree / CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
