SerpApi.Org
A June 1 trial date was set Wednesday for Nicolás Maduro to face drug trafficking charges along with his wife as his lawyers continue to object to the U.S. military action that snatched the Venezuelan president from power and deposited him in New York.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid and brought them to New York in early January.
Preliminary trial timeline determined
Both entered the courtroom Wednesday in tan prison clothing without shackles. Maduro smiled and shook the hands of attorneys at the defense table, CBS News New York's Alice Gainer reported.
Neither spoke during the 15-minute hearing. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set the trial date at the request of lawyers on both sides. Under the approved schedule, defense lawyers will begin filing motions in early September to challenge the indictment. Oral arguments on the first round of motions will begin on Nov. 17.
The defense said there are issues of jurisdiction it will be arguing, telling the judge, "If we are correct with sovereign immunity, that means the defendant is not required to litigate the case or other motions. So we believe that first category should be resolved first."
Legal expert Rich Schoenstein told CBS News New York it's unlikely the defense prevails on that argument.
"The view of the U.S. Government is that Nicolás Maduro is not the legitimate head of Venezuela and is therefore not a part of the state and is therefore not entitled to sovereign immunity," Schoenstein said.
"I am not guilty. I am a decent man"
President Donald Trump's administration has defended the raid as a "surgical law enforcement operation" in a criminal case first brought six years ago. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.
U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.
"I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country," he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.
Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, has said he expects to contest the legality of Maduro's "military abduction."
During Wednesday's hearing, Pollack said he will first challenge the indictment on sovereign immunity grounds because if that is successful, Maduro won't have to continue litigating the case afterward.
The lawyers have said there are complex legal defenses that the court must address before a trial can begin.
Maduro and Flores have not asked to be released on bail.
