Prosecutors unsealed a torture-conspiracy charge against Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores.

A superseding indictment adds counts to a case already in court. It does not decide them. ABC News and the Associated Press reported that the new torture allegations were unsealed Thursday in Manhattan, that Maduro's lawyer said he denies them, and that Judge Alvin Hellerstein kept Cilia Flores in jail after a hearing on her medical-release request. Both had already pleaded not guilty to the narcoterrorism and drug-trafficking case brought after their capture in January.

ABC News reported that on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, federal prosecutors in New York unsealed a superseding indictment in Manhattan federal court accusing Nicolas Maduro of conspiring with his wife, Cilia Flores, to torture people held in Venezuelan prisons. ABC News reported Maduro is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture, and that Flores is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of narcoterrorism. The Associated Press reported the torture charges accuse the two of heading a state-sponsored system of repression responsible for beating, asphyxiating, and delivering electric shocks to scores of victims, including several Americans. Maduro did not appear Thursday. His lawyer, Barry J. Pollack, said Maduro "denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court." The Associated Press reported Flores's attorney said he had not yet had time to review the new allegations. ABC News and the Associated Press reported the two will be arraigned on the new counts at a later date. Both previously pleaded not guilty to narcoterrorism and drug-trafficking charges after U.S. forces captured them in Caracas in January.

The indictment alleged, ABC News reported, "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." The Associated Press reported the indictment claims Maduro suggested torture methods, sought and received updates on specific victims' treatment, watched a video of a forced confession, and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner's child "as a form of psychological torture." The Associated Press reported prosecutors allege that on occasion he would laugh after hearing about the abuse of prisoners, and that Flores, a former attorney general, helped develop the system and ordered the torture of some specific people. U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said outside the courthouse, the Associated Press reported, that the updated indictment "alleges conduct that is truly unthinkable" and that "This is the epitome of corruption." FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement ABC News published, "As alleged in the indictment, the Maduro regime subjected over a dozen American citizens to torture while held in custody of the Venezuelan government -- including drugs, electrocution, sexual assault, and more," and "They will now answer for their crimes." Those sentences are what prosecutors and the FBI director said about an indictment. They are not findings.

The new counts were unsealed on a day Flores was already in court. The Associated Press reported she is 69 and that the hearing was a previously scheduled request to be released for medical treatment. Her lawyers have said she has lost 25 pounds while imprisoned in the United States, might have suffered a minor heart attack in July, and has been told she might need heart surgery. ABC News reported defense attorney Mark Donnelly said she needs a medical procedure and cannot recuperate in a jail cell, and that he proposed house arrest with a private security detail. "The conditions that the defense proposes address all the risk of flight concerns that the government may have," Donnelly said. Prosecutors opposed release. ABC News reported they accused Flores of "horrific acts" and said "witnesses who were in the room" would testify about the torture she allegedly conspired with her husband to carry out. The Associated Press reported prosecutors called her an "extreme" flight risk. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied the request. ABC News reported he said, "Jail is not a nice place to be, but these are serious allegations," and "I don't think the conditions are there to release her." The Associated Press reported he pushed back on the claim that her high blood pressure was life-threatening, noting she is already on medication for it. A bail ruling keeps her in custody. It does not decide the new counts.

The drug case is still the case they pleaded not guilty to. The Associated Press reported their lawyers have asked for that case to be dismissed on the ground that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country. ABC News reported Maduro's lawyer argued in a filing last month that he is immune from prosecution because he was the leader of a sovereign nation. A motion to dismiss is a request. The court has not granted it, and Thursday's indictment did not resolve it. The Associated Press also reported that co-defendant Gen. Hugo Carvajal pleaded guilty last year to the drug-trafficking charges and has been meeting with prosecutors. His plea is his. It is not a plea by Maduro or Flores. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.