Family members of five people killed in Venezuela have filed a federal lawsuit against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of authorizing the killings, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Brooklyn, New York, against Maduro, who is in U.S. custody awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges after being captured in January in Caracas by U.S. forces.

The lawsuit was filed by the Guernica 37 Centre, an international nonprofit legal organization that seeks accountability for serious human rights violations through transnational legal actions, the Times reported. The group is representing family members of five young men killed by Venezuelan security forces in police raids between 2017 and 2020.

The plaintiffs are suing under the Torture Victim Protection Act, a 1991 law that allows civil actions to be filed in U.S. federal court against people accused of committing torture or extrajudicial killings while acting in an official capacity in another country.

To protect the families from retaliation, the lawsuit was filed using aliases. Although many victims' relatives have gone public in their campaign for justice, the plaintiffs' attorneys fear for their safety not only because they are taking aim at low-level officers but also at someone who was the leading member of the Venezuelan government, according to the Times.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of three mothers and a father, as well as a woman whose two brothers were killed during the police operation.

"I decided to file this lawsuit and report my son's case and make it public because my son wasn't a criminal," said a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe 3, according to the Times. "My son was murdered in his own room." She has since left Venezuela.

The police, she said, stole her granddaughter's PlayStation and so many of her son's clothes that she had to buy an outfit to bury him in.

The killings that are the focus of the lawsuit began after the Maduro regime announced an "Operation to Liberate and Protect the People," a series of militarized campaigns. After human rights groups denounced the violence, Maduro rebranded the squad under the name Special Action Forces, more commonly known by its Spanish acronym, FAES, according to the Times.

According to the Times, Maduro's attorney, Barry J. Pollack, was unavailable for comment after the lawsuit was filed.

A United Nations report said Venezuelan security forces killed at least 6,856 people in an 18-month period in 2018 and 2019. The report said officers then altered crime scenes by planting guns or drugs or by firing weapons into walls to make it appear the victims had resisted arrest.

"This complaint reflects the extraordinary determination of the victims' families to confront abuses of power and affirm that no one is beyond the reach of the law," Michael Reed Hurtado, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, told the Times.

The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages.

The Guernica 37 Centre in December sued Venezuelan Lt. Col. Rafael Quero Silva in Miami federal court, accusing him of directing a campaign of torture against five demonstrators who were detained at Venezuela's national guard headquarters in Barquisimeto after protesting Maduro's claimed 1.5% victory over an opposition candidate in the 2013 election.

Quero Silva later drew attention after he was spotted working as an extra portraying a police officer on the Spanish-language Telemundo soap opera "My Perfect Family," which aired in the United States in 2018.