"Opposition torture" added to the set of allegations against former Venezuelan president and his wife

"Opposition torture" added to the set of allegations against former Venezuelan president and his wife

On Thursday, October 16, a federal court in New York added the charge of "conspiring to torture rivals" to the allegations against the former Venezuelan president and his wife.

The charge of conspiracy to torture political opponents of the Venezuelan government was added to the drug trafficking charge previously brought against Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in a Manhattan, New York court.

On January 3 of this year, American commandos arrested the 63-year-old Maduro and the 69-year-old Flores at their heavily guarded residence in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, in a nighttime operation ordered by US President Donald Trump.

The two were accused in federal court of using their leadership positions in the oil-rich South American country to facilitate the shipment of cocaine to the United States, but both denied the allegations. Maduro faces four criminal charges, including "narcoterrorism conspiracy" and "conspiracy to import cocaine," and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

Now this court has added a conspiracy to commit torture charge to the drug indictment.

According to the indictment released to the media on Thursday, the federal prosecutor stated in one case that a Venezuelan army officer was tortured on suspicion of planning a coup.

Nicolas Maduro ordered the arrest of this officer in 2013, and members of Venezuelan military counterintelligence tortured him during interrogation with electrical wires and hung him up.

Read the full report on the Radio Farda website.