Ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro stood in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Thursday and refused to accept a new set of charges that accuse him of conspiring to torture people, including Americans. His wife, Cilia Flores, entered a not guilty plea on the same superseding indictment.

ABC News reported that the pair appeared at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse in New York after federal prosecutors unsealed the torture related counts last week. The new filing builds on earlier narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges that both defendants already contested.

Maduro did not offer a simple plea formula. When the court asked how he pleaded to the superseding indictment, he rejected the entire charging paper and labeled the torture accusations false. Flores also pleaded not guilty. The case now points toward a trial date of June 14, 2027.

Federal prosecutors say the couple helped run a repression machine inside Venezuelan prisons. The indictment remains an accusation, not a finding of guilt. Both defendants maintain innocence as the litigation moves forward.

What the superseding indictment alleges

Prosecutors charged Maduro with one count of conspiracy to commit torture. They charged Flores with one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of narcoterrorism. The paper says the pair conspired to torture individuals held in Venezuelan prisons and that Americans were among those targeted.

The indictment alleged a broader pattern that began when Maduro took power. ABC News carried this passage from the charging document:

"When Maduro became President of Venezuela in or about 2013, he authorized the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system designed to use torture, military detention, and violence as a means of repression against the political opposition."

Prosecutors further claimed Maduro "presided over this system of repression and torture." The indictment also alleged that Americans were tortured because Maduro "assigned blame to the United States for the instability in Venezuela." Those statements are allegations drawn from the unsealed indictment. No court has ruled on their truth.

Cases that track extreme harm and contested admissions often turn on what can be proved in open court, a dynamic also visible in coverage of a Florida murder case built around alleged hiring for a killing. Here, the government must still convert indictment language into admissible proof.

Courtroom scene and Maduro's response

Inside the courthouse on Oct. 15, 2026, Maduro greeted the audience with a wave and shook hands with his attorneys. When the new charges were put to him, he answered in blunt terms.

"I reject this document in its entirety"

He also called the accusations of torture "false." Flores entered her own not guilty plea. Outside the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Federal Courthouse, NYPD officers managed the perimeter while protesters gathered.

The appearance marked another chapter after the couple's first court date in January. U.S. forces had captured Maduro and Flores in a military operation in Caracas. At that earlier hearing, both pleaded not guilty to narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges and maintained their innocence.

Immunity claim and the road to trial

Maduro's lawyer filed a separate argument last month. The filing contended that Maduro is immune from prosecution because he was the leader of a sovereign nation. The court has not publicly resolved that claim in the material provided. The immunity theory sits alongside the new torture conspiracy count and the older drug and narcoterrorism charges.

Trial is scheduled for June 14, 2027. Between now and then, the parties will litigate what evidence the government can present, what the defense can suppress, and whether any immunity theory narrows or blocks the case. Docket details such as the full case caption, the presiding judge, and the complete statute list were not stated in the available account.

Accountability fights around former rulers and their networks continue to draw public attention, including reporting on children of a Somali dictator linked to a Medicare funded business in Ohio. Maduro's matter remains a live federal prosecution with contested charges and a firm trial date.

What investigators and the court still must sort out

Authorities have not publicly named specific alleged victims beyond the description that the charges involve people, including Americans. Investigators and prosecutors will need to establish identities, custody conditions, and any link to the alleged conspiracy if the case is to proceed to verdict.

No public results have been released in the cited reporting about the precise operational proof behind each alleged act of torture. The indictment describes a system of military detention and violence aimed at political opposition. Turning that narrative into trial evidence is the government's burden.

The defense, for its part, has already signaled two tracks: a flat denial of the torture accusations and a sovereign immunity theory tied to Maduro's former role as head of state. Flores faces an added narcoterrorism count in the superseding set, layered onto the earlier drug related charges both defendants previously contested.

Procedurally, the Thursday arraignment locked in not guilty pleas on the new counts and kept the June 14, 2027 trial date on the calendar. Relative timing in the coverage places the unsealing of the superseding indictment in the week before the hearing and the immunity filing in the month before that. Exact calendar dates for those earlier papers were not listed beyond those relative markers.

Stakes for federal prosecution of foreign power figures

The case places an ousted foreign leader and his wife inside the ordinary machinery of a U.S. federal criminal court. Capture by U.S. forces in Caracas brought them into custody. Prior not guilty pleas in January covered narcoterrorism and drug trafficking. The superseding indictment added conspiracy to commit torture for Maduro and both torture conspiracy and narcoterrorism for Flores.

None of those counts is a conviction. Each remains an allegation that federal prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt unless the case ends earlier on legal grounds such as immunity. Maduro's in court rejection of the charging document underscored the defense posture: total denial of the torture narrative.

File material referenced in the coverage includes a Jan. 10, 2025 image of Maduro and Flores after a swearing in ceremony for a third term at the National Assembly in Caracas. That political backdrop is background only. The live legal question is whether the United States can sustain criminal counts for alleged torture conspiracy and related offenses against a former foreign head of state and his spouse in a New York federal courthouse.

For readers who track law and order, the sequence is straightforward. An indictment unsealed. Defendants arraigned. Not guilty pleas entered. A trial date set. An immunity claim already on paper. The court will decide what survives motions practice and what a jury may one day hear.

When former strongmen meet a federal docket, the test is simple: can the government prove its charges in open court, under American rules, without shortcuts. That is the standard that protects both public safety and constitutional order.