U.S. invokes rarely used torture law in revamped case against Maduro

(Reuters) – Nicolas Maduro is one of just a handful of people to be charged in the US with violating a federal law criminalizing torture committed overseas, a Reuters review of court records found, as prosecutors seek to broaden their criminal case against the ousted Venezuelan president.

Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 70, pleaded not guilty last week to an expanded indictment accusing them of conspiring to torture political opponents to remain in power, in addition to the drug trafficking charges they already faced. They are scheduled to go trial in June 2027.

Maduro and Flores, captured in January during a US military raid in Caracas ordered by President Donald Trump, are just the seventh- and eighth-people Reuters identified who have been charged with violating a 1994 law criminalizing acts of torture. The law defines torture as an act intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering on a person in custody.