Maduro, shackled at the ankles, was brought before US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan following a revised indictment that accuses him and his wife, Cilia Flores, of leading a state-sponsored campaign of repression that included torture of victims, including three Americans. The judge entered a not-guilty plea for Maduro after he twice responded to the request to enter a plea by criticising the indictment. Flores, 70, said through an interpreter: 'I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.'
According to the rewritten indictment, Maduro oversaw a torture system that beat, asphyxiated and delivered electric shocks to victims. He is accused of personally recommending torture methods, receiving updates on specific victims' treatment and threatening to kill a prisoner's child as psychological torture. Flores, a former attorney general, allegedly helped develop the repressive system and ordered the torture of specific people.
Maduro and Flores were seized from their Caracas home in a night-time raid by US military forces in January. They had previously pleaded not guilty in a separate US drug case that alleged they conspired to flood the United States with cocaine. Their attorneys argue the cases should be dismissed on immunity grounds because they were the leader and first lady of a foreign country.
Prosecutors told the judge that both sides want the trial date moved from 1 June to 14 June. Torture is a crime under international law that can be prosecuted outside the country where abuse occurred. The prosecution of foreign officials in the US is rare but has been attempted in cases involving the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, Russians responsible for war crimes in Ukraine, and a former prison warden in Bashar al-Assad's Syria.