NEW YORK – Former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife will go on trial next June on drug trafficking charges, a judge said Wednesday, as their lawyers continue to oppose U.S. military action to seize power from them.
At the request of attorneys for both sides, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set a trial date of June 1. Under the approved schedule, defense attorneys will begin filing motions challenging the indictment in early September, and the couple will return to court on Nov. 17 for oral arguments on the motions.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held in a Brooklyn jail since the withdrawal of U.S. troops They were captured from their home in Caracas A midnight raid brought them to New York in early January.
Neither man spoke during Wednesday’s 15-minute hearing as they sat separately at the defense table, surrounded by their respective lawyers. Both men pleaded not guilty. They could face life in prison if a jury agrees they were involved in a conspiracy to ship cocaine to the United States
As he was led into the courtroom, a bespectacled Maduro greeted the judge’s staff and shook hands with his and his wife’s lawyers. Wearing a tan prison uniform and a thick beard, he looked upbeat and thin, smiling as he chatted with his lawyers. He listened to an explanation of the process in Spanish through headphones and clasped his hands together in a prayer-like gesture. He holds a black pen in his right hand and writes sporadic notes on a white legal pad.
As deputy U.S. Marshals led him out, he waved to someone in the gallery.
President Donald Trump’s administration has Justify the attack Maduro’s capture as ‘surgical law enforcement operation’ in criminal case bring first six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his arrest a kidnapping.
U.S. prosecutors say Maduro colluded with Venezuelan law enforcement in a conspiracy to bring thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States to aid drug lords.
“I am not guilty. I am a decent man and the president of our country according to the constitution,” he said in Spanish during his trial in January.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said he hoped to challenge the legality of Maduro’s “military kidnapping.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Pollack said he would first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because, if successful, Maduro would not have to continue prosecuting the case.
Lawyers said the court must resolve complex legal defense issues before the trial can begin.
Maduro and Flores did not ask for bail.
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