Maduro tells judge he is 'a decent man'
Maduro's arraignment began with U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein reading the charges facing the captured Venezuelan leader and his wife. When Hellerstein asked Nicolás Maduros to identify himself, he stood up and began speaking in Spanish.
“Are you sir, Nicolás Maduro Moras?” Hellerstein asked, using Maduro’s full name in the indictment.
“I am president of the Republic of Venezuela,” said Maduro, who added that he was captured on January 3.
Hellerstein then stopped Maduro, telling him, “There’ll be a time and a place to go into this.”
Asked for his plea to the charges, Maduro said: “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I’m a decent man.”
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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