Nicolas Maduro, wife face torture charge in new U.S. indictment

Reported by CBS News. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are now facing an additional charge of conspiracy to commit torture as federal prosecutors filed a superseding indictment in the Southern District of New York on Thursday.

"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," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on social media . "They will now answer for their crimes."

The couple were already facing a slew of charges, including narco-terrorism conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

The 30-page superseding indictment accuses the couple of overseeing a system of political repression that relied on Venezuela's military, intelligence agencies and security forces to torture their opponents, silence dissidents and maintain power.

"To undermine Venezuelan democracy and entrench themselves in power, these same leaders presided over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, arbitrary detention, and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens," prosecutors wrote. "That torture included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims' families, including children."