{"id":374068,"date":"2026-10-15T18:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T18:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374068\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T18:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T18:02:18","slug":"judge-cuts-off-ex-venezuela-dictator-nicolas-maduros-rambling-nyc-court-speech-rejecting-new-torture-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374068\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge cuts off ex-Venezuela dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s rambling NYC court speech rejecting new torture rap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro got cut off by a Manhattan federal judge Thursday as he delivered a rambling in-court speech while denying new charges <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/10\/08\/us-news\/ex-venezuela-dictator-nicolas-maduro-wife-allegedly-conspired-to-torture-americans\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">of torturing US citizens<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI reject this document in its entirety,\u201d said the deposed despot, 63, sporting a tan jail jumpsuit and looking<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/31\/us-news\/slimmed-down-nicolas-maduro-flashes-smile-peace-sign-in-new-jail-pics\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> slimmed down since his January arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, the accused drug-smuggling strongman said the charges were \u201cfalse allegations\u201d and the \u201csum of concepts and allegations that were already presented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A courtroom sketch of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores in Manhattan Federal Court on Oct. 15, 2026. REUTERS\/Jane Rosenberg<\/p>\n<p>Former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal torture charges after a Manhattan judge interrupted his court speech. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein \u2013 who had asked Maduro to provide a simple answer to whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty to his indictment \u2013 interrupted the ousted dictator\u2019s diatribe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA plea of not guilty will be entered on behalf of Mr Maduro,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro appeared in high spirits as he entered the courtroom through a side door Thursday morning, flashing a smile and waving toward the spectator gallery.<\/p>\n<p>US District Court Judge Avin Hellerstein, who had asked Maduro to provide a simple answer to one of his questions \u2014 cut off the dictator\u2019s rambling in-court speech. REUTERS\/Jane Rosenberg<\/p>\n<p>Anti-Maduro demonstrators protesting outside of the courthouse during the former Venezuelan leader\u2019s appearance. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>The infamous tyrant and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, were initially charged with narcoterrorism conspiracy after the US military<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/tag\/us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro\/\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"> captured them in a late-night Jan.3 raid<\/a> on their presidential compound in Caracas.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Federal prosecutors in Manhattan added new charges last week alleging that the fallen power couple conspired to torture US citizens jailed in Venezuela, including one dissident that was given an \u201celectric shock to his testicles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Flores also pleaded not guilty on Thursday, while Hellerstein pushed the trial date back two weeks to June 14, 2027 in light of the new charges.<\/p>\n<p>Both Maduro and Flores are being held without bail at Brooklyn\u2019s Metropolitan Detention Center, and are due back in court on December 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro got cut off by a Manhattan federal judge Thursday as he delivered a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[419,57,9,24,15862,56,63,65,64,4719,58,7318],"class_list":["post-374068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-courts","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-prisons","tag-us-news","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}