NEW YORK: Venezuela’s ousted president, Nicolás Maduro, is reportedly studying the Holy Quran, the Bible and other religious books while being held in a US prison.

According to people familiar with his circumstances in prison, Maduro has embarked on a spiritual journey and has also been meeting with religious leaders.

A report by The New York Times stated that the 63-year-old Maduro is being held at a prison in Brooklyn, where he spends much of his time reading the Holy Quran, the Bible and other religious texts. He has also reportedly met with a Christian priest and a Jewish rabbi at the prison.

According to the report, Maduro has long maintained an interest in spirituality. In the past, he has publicly claimed that his ancestors were Jewish and that he belonged to a Sephardic Jewish family that migrated from the Dutch Antilles to Venezuela during the previous century.

However, people close to Maduro say that before his arrest, he had not demonstrated such a deep interest in Judaism.