Venezuela’s ousted president Nicolas Maduro finds out US trial date | World | News

Nicolás Maduro will stand trial alongside his wife on drug trafficking charges on June 1, as his lawyers continue to object to the US military action that removed the Venezuelan president from power and sent him to New York.

Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held in a Brooklyn jail since US forces captured them from their home in Caracas during a midnight raid and brought them to New York in early January. Neither spoke during a 15-minute hearing Wednesday, when Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the trial date at the request of attorneys for both sides. The couple, who have both pleaded not guilty, could face life in prison if a jury finds they were part of a conspiracy to ship cocaine into the United States. According to the schedule approved by the judge, defense attorneys will begin filing petitions against the indictment in early September.

Donald Trump’s administration has defended the operation that captured Maduro as a “surgical law enforcement operation” linked to a criminal case first filed six years ago.

But Maduro identified himself as a prisoner of war and claimed his capture amounted to a kidnapping.

U.S. prosecutors allege that Maduro was involved in a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the country, collaborating with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug lords.

At his trial in January, Maduro said in Spanish: “I am not guilty. I am an honest man, the constitutional president of my country.”

His lawyer, Barry Pollack, has previously said he expects to challenge the legality of Maduro’s “military kidnapping.”

At Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Pollack initially said he would object to the indictment on grounds of state immunity and argued that if the move was successful, Maduro would not have to continue pursuing the case.

Lawyers said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before the trial can begin.

Neither Maduro nor Flores requested bail.