纽约，10月21日电——路透社对法庭记录的审查发现，尼古拉斯·马杜罗是在美国被指控违反一项将海外酷刑行为定罪的联邦法律的极少数人之一，检察官正寻求扩大针对这位被推翻的委内瑞拉总统的刑事案件。
NEW YORK, Oct 21 - Nicolas Maduro is one of just a handful of people to be charged in the US with violating a federal law criminalizing torture committed overseas, a Reuters review of court records found, as prosecutors seek to broaden their criminal case against the ousted Venezuelan president.
现年63岁的马杜罗和70岁的妻子西莉亚·弗洛雷斯上周对一份扩大后的起诉书提出无罪抗辩，起诉书指控他们密谋酷刑折磨政治对手以维持权力，这除了他们已面临的贩毒指控之外。他们定于2027年6月受审。
Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 70, pleaded not guilty last week to an expanded indictment accusing them of conspiring to torture political opponents to remain in power, in addition to the drug trafficking charges they already faced. They are scheduled to go on trial in June 2027.
马杜罗和弗洛雷斯于1月在特朗普总统下令的美军突袭加拉加斯行动中被捕，他们是路透社确认的第七和第八名被指控违反1994年将酷刑行为定罪的法律的人。该法律将酷刑定义为意图对被羁押者造成严重肉体或精神痛苦或折磨的行为。
Maduro and Flores, captured in January during a US military raid in Caracas ordered by President Donald Trump, are just the seventh and eighth people Reuters identified who have been charged with violating a 1994 law criminalizing acts of torture. The law defines torture as an act intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering on a person in custody.
根据该法规已有四人被定罪，其中包括利比里亚和冈比亚的准军事部队成员、被推翻的叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德手下的一名监狱长，以及一名在伊拉克建立非法军火工厂的美国公民。
Four people have been convicted under the statute, including members of paramilitary forces in Liberia and Gambia, the head of a Syrian prison under ousted President Bashar al-Assad, and a US citizen who developed an illegal arms factory in Iraq.
据Steptoe律师事务所合伙人米歇尔·帕拉迪斯称，马杜罗案标志着美国首次因国家元首涉嫌在其国家授权使用酷刑而对其提起诉讼。
The Maduro case marks the first time the United States has prosecuted a head of state for allegedly authorizing the use of torture in their country, according to Michel Paradis, a partner at the Steptoe law firm.
“这确实是一个里程碑式的案件，”曾代表关塔那摩湾美国海军基地被拘留者的帕拉迪斯说。
"This really is a landmark case," said Paradis, who previously represented detainees at the Guantanamo Bay US naval base.
酷刑指标标志着针对马杜罗和弗洛雷斯案件的焦点发生重大转移。虽然他们仍被指控滥用职权帮助贩毒者并为自己敛财，但新指控意味着，马杜罗执政13年间常伴随的政治动荡期间涉嫌发生的侵犯人权行为将成为审判的核心。“一次重大升级”酷刑指控可能会增强检察官的优势，因为这使他们能够讲述一个更全面的故事，讲述马杜罗据称如何利用各种犯罪活动来维持权力，并使他们能够传唤更多令人同情的证人，法律专家表示。
The torture charges mark a substantial shift in the focus of the case against Maduro and Flores. While they remain accused of abusing their power to help drug traffickers and enrich themselves, the new charges mean that alleged human rights abuses during the political upheaval that often marked Maduro's 13 years in office will become central to the trial. 'A SIGNIFICANT ESCALATION' The torture charge could strengthen the hand of prosecutors by allowing them to tell a more comprehensive story about how Maduro allegedly employed a wide range of criminal activity to stay in power, and by enabling them to call more sympathetic witnesses, legal experts said.
“酷刑指控确实是一个重大升级，”曾任联邦检察官、专注于国家安全问题的阿蒂·麦康奈尔（Artie McConnell）说。
"The torture charge is really a significant escalation," said Artie McConnell, a former federal prosecutor focused on national security issues.
麦康奈尔补充道：“这将酷刑和政治镇压因素置于政府起诉理论的核心。”马杜罗的律师未回应置评请求。
"It puts these torture and political repression elements at the center of the government's theory," McConnell added, referring to the prosecution.
弗洛雷斯的律师马克·唐纳利（Mark Donnelly）和安德烈斯·桑切斯（Andres Sanchez）表示，她对所有指控“完全无辜”。他们表示，将修改此前基于主权豁免权——作为主权国家元首免受起诉的保护——提出的驳回起诉动议，以应对新增指控。提起指控的曼哈顿联邦检察官办公室发言人拒绝置评。
Lawyers for Maduro did not respond to requests for comment. Mark Donnelly and Andres Sanchez, lawyers for Flores, said she is "completely innocent" of all charges. They said they would revise a motion they previously made to dismiss the indictment on the basis of sovereign immunity — protection from prosecution as the head of a sovereign country — to account for the new charges. A spokesperson for the Manhattan US Attorney's office, which brought the charges, declined to comment.
合作证人 1994年法律由国会通过，旨在履行美国根据《联合国反酷刑公约》承担的义务，该公约是在罗纳德·里根总统任内签署的。
COOPERATING WITNESSES The 1994 law was passed by Congress to make good on US obligations under the United Nations Convention against Torture, signed during President Ronald Reagan's tenure.
根据该法律，每项酷刑罪名最高可判处20年监禁；如果受害者因酷刑死亡，可判处无期徒刑或死刑。被判犯有多项酷刑行为者可面临更长刑期。迄今根据该法规被定罪者已获判60年至97年监禁。
Under the law, each torture count is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, or by a life sentence or the death penalty if the victim dies due to the torture. People convicted of multiple acts of torture can receive longer sentences. Those convicted under the statute so far have received prison sentences of 60 to 97 years.
马杜罗和弗洛雷斯不符合死刑适用条件，因为他们被控酷刑共谋，而非亲自实施酷刑。
Maduro and Flores are not eligible for the death penalty because they are charged with torture conspiracy, not with carrying out torture themselves.
美国检察官只能对美国国民或身处美国境内的被告提起酷刑指控。对马杜罗和弗洛雷斯的指控是在加拉卡斯突袭行动后，两人被带至纽约之后提出的。
US prosecutors can bring torture charges only against defendants who are US nationals or who are physically present in the United States. The charges against Maduro and Flores came after they were brought to New York following the raid in Caracas.
美国在酷刑案件中起诉的其他许多被告，均是在涉嫌酷刑发生后移居美国或试图进入美国。
Many of the other defendants in US torture cases had moved to or attempted to enter the United States after the alleged torture.
贝克霍斯特勒律师事务所合伙人麦康奈尔表示，新起诉书比之前的起诉书更为详细，引用了对涉嫌酷刑受害者和事件的描述。
McConnell, a partner at law firm BakerHostetler, said the new indictment was more detailed than the previous one, citing the descriptions of alleged torture victims and incidents.
起诉书中描述的一起2018年事件称，检方指控委内瑞拉军方军官在审讯一名被拘留者关于一名马杜罗政敌下落时，用砍刀击打该被拘留者，并向其喷洒化学刺激剂。
In one 2018 incident described in the indictment, prosecutors said Venezuelan military officers hit a detainee with a machete and sprayed him with a chemical irritant while interrogating him about the whereabouts of a Maduro political opponent.
前曼哈顿联邦检察官谢恩·斯坦斯伯里表示，陪审团可能会认为涉嫌酷刑受害者的证词极具说服力。
Jurors could find testimony from alleged torture victims to be powerful, said Shane Stansbury, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan.
麦康奈尔说，起诉书中有三名涉嫌酷刑受害者是美国公民，他们的证词可能会在陪审员中产生特别强烈的共鸣。
Three of the alleged torture victims in the indictment are American citizens, and their testimony could resonate particularly strongly among the jurors, McConnell said.
如果仅就贩毒指控进行审判，很可能严重依赖合作证人的证词，而这些证人自身可能参与了涉嫌犯罪。辩护律师通常会在交叉盘问中严厉质询合作证人自身的犯罪前科，试图削弱其可信度。
A trial on the drug trafficking charges alone likely would have relied heavily on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, who may have played a role in the alleged crimes themselves. Defense lawyers often question cooperating witnesses sharply about their own criminal histories on cross-examination to try to undercut their credibility.
专家表示，毋庸置疑，合作证人仍极有可能在帮助检方将马杜罗和弗洛雷斯与涉嫌酷刑阴谋联系起来方面发挥关键作用。
To be sure, cooperating witnesses are still likely to prove critical in helping prosecutors link Maduro and Flores to the alleged torture, experts said.
曼哈顿联邦检察官办公室检凯文·沙利文在10月8日的法庭听证会上表示，合作证人将就马杜罗和弗洛雷斯涉嫌参与酷刑阴谋作证。田纳西州判决无罪 美国提起的酷刑案件并非都以定罪告终。
Kevin Sullivan, a prosecutor with the Manhattan US Attorney's office, said in an October 8 court hearing that cooperating witnesses would testify about alleged involvement by Maduro and Flores in the torture conspiracy. ACQUITTAL IN TENNESSEE Not every torture case the US has brought has resulted in a conviction.
一名被告、纽约州上州居民苏莱曼·穆亚吉奇于2012年在美国被指控在前南斯拉夫解体后酷刑折磨一名士兵，但于2013年被引渡至波斯尼亚受审。
One defendant, an upstate New York resident named Sulejman Mujagic who was charged in the US in 2012 with torturing a soldier after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, was instead extradited to Bosnia for trial in 2013.
另一名因在波斯尼亚涉嫌实施酷刑而被起诉的被告——塞德·米尔科维奇（Sead Miljkovic）——在2025年由田纳西州查塔努加（Chattanooga）的陪审团裁定无罪，但他后来承认了自己犯有护照欺诈罪。据他的律师布莱恩·霍斯（Bryan Hoss）称，米尔科维奇已经离开了美国。
Another defendant charged over alleged torture in Bosnia, Sead Miljkovic, was found not guilty of US torture charges by a jury in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2025 but later pleaded guilty to passport fraud. He has since left the US, according to his lawyer, Bryan Hoss.
霍斯指出，涉案受害者们在法庭上的证词内容随着时间的推移发生了变化，这削弱了他们证词的可靠性；同时，他的当事人所涉嫌的虐待行为并未达到酷刑的严重程度。他还表示，陪审团可能对美国政府为何要起诉此案感到疑惑。
Hoss said the accounts given by the alleged victims who testified in the case had shifted over time, undercutting their credibility, and that the abuse allegedly committed by his client did not rise to the level of torture. Hoss also said that jurors may have questioned why the US government was prosecuting the case.
在马杜罗（Maduro）的审判中，陪审团可能不会有类似的疑虑。
Jurors in the Maduro trial may not have similar concerns.
“这些指控针对的是一位前国家领导人，这有助于人们更好地理解整个事件的背景。”霍斯说道。
"The fact that these are filed against the former head of the country allows people to understand it a little better," Hoss said.