Cilia Flores asks US judge for house arrest citing heart problems

Right · 2Cilia Flores, 69, the wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was due in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday 8 October, where her lawyers were to urge a judge to release her from jail and place her under house arrest because of heart problems. 1 2 Right · 1According to Reuters, the hearing is before US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, and her lawyers want bail so she can undergo a cardiac procedure and recover in a more comfortable setting while awaiting trial. 2 Right · 1Her lawyers say her medical issues cannot be treated effectively in jail. They say she has lost 25 pounds at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, has been told she might need heart surgery, suffers lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath, and may have had a minor heart attack in July. 1

Right · 1They also say she suffered permanent scarring when she was "thrown against a wall or dresser" during the US military action that captured her. 1 Right · 2The defence proposes that she live at a residence in the New York area under 24-hour guard or round-the-clock private security, and says she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk because she is "intent on supporting her husband with her constant presence." 1 2 Right · 1Her lawyers said Venezuela's government, which the US authorized to pay Flores' and Maduro's legal fees, would cover the costs of that arrangement. 2

Right · 2Prosecutors oppose release, writing that Flores would pose an "extreme risk of flight and danger to the public," including possible witness intimidation. They say she has received adequate care, including trips from the jail to a local hospital when needed, and that other judges have found it unfair to let some defendants pay for their own supervision because poorer defendants cannot. 1 2 Right · 2Maduro and Flores were seized from their Caracas home by US forces on 3 January and brought to New York. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the US, and have been held at the Brooklyn detention center since. 2 1 Right · 2Their trial is scheduled for 1 June 2027. If convicted, Flores faces a mandatory minimum 40-year sentence, and Reuters says the bail decision will not affect her trial or punishment. The AP says the pair face potential life sentences. 2 1

Right · 1The defendants have asked for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country. 1 Right · 1The Trump administration has defended the raid as a "surgical law enforcement operation," while Maduro calls himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping. 1 Right · 1Separately, a US official told Reuters that Maduro and Flores were expected to face new criminal charges over the alleged torture of Americans held in Venezuela, possibly announced as soon as Thursday. 2

Right · 1US prosecutors say Flores, a former Venezuelan attorney general and head of the National Assembly, took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a large drug trafficker. Venezuela has boosted cooperation with Washington under Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice president. 2