US charges ex-Venezuelan leader Maduro with torture conspiracy

US authorities on Thursday charged former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiring to torture Venezuelan citizens to keep hold of power.

The revised indictment says Maduro authorised the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system built to employ torture, arbitrary detention and violence as tools of repression against the political opposition.

What the indictment alleges

The document states that thousands of Venezuelans were harassed, threatened, arrested, prosecuted, assaulted, tortured or killed by people acting for Maduro's government. The alleged abuses include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation.

Maduro is also accused of approving torture methods and personally threatening to kill a prisoner's child as a form of psychological torture. According to the indictment, the victims include three US citizens, whose names do not appear in the court documents.

Mounting legal pressure

The new charges add to the legal pressure on Maduro, who already faces an accusation of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. He is now also accused of human rights abuses committed while he was in office.

Maduro and Flores have been held in New York since January, after US forces seized them in an overnight raid on their home in Caracas. Both have pleaded not guilty to the drug trafficking charges and could face life in prison if convicted.

The International Criminal Court is also investigating Maduro over alleged crimes against humanity linked to the crackdown on his political opponents. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing.