SerpApi.Org
July 22 (UPI) -- A federal judge set the trial of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, for next June.
At a court hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the date as June 1 after prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to it. But they noted the date could shift depending on issues such as getting classified information.
Hellerstein seemed skeptical that those issues would get resolved in time.
"This is a realistic schedule. We don't think it's going to slip," Maduro defense attorney Barry Pollack said. But he said if it takes more time, they would inform the court.
Maduro and Flores both appeared in court, and Maduro waved to the gallery before he left, CNN reported.
Maduro and Flores were captured in Caracas by the U.S. military and brought to New York in early January. They pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to import guns and cocaine for more than 25 years. They are in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Maduro had been Venezuela's president since 2013.
"I am innocent," Maduro told the court in January. "I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country."
In April, Hellerstein ruled that Maduro and Flores could pay their attorneys with money from the Venezuelan government. Prosecutors had argued that allowing the Venezuelan government to pay would violate U.S. sanction laws.
