Venezuela's ousted president Nicolas Maduro and his wife will go on trial in the United States in June 2027, a court has ruled, after the US military abducted them in a stunning nighttime raid in January.
During a roughly 20-minute hearing on Wednesday, Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date for June 1 next year following a joint request from prosecutors and defence counsel.
Protesters with signs reading "Free President Maduro" gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse waving Venezuelan flags.
The former leader, 63, and wife Cilia Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for more than seven months after pleading not guilty to federal drug trafficking and firearms charges.
American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas on January 3. The lightning operation combined naval, air and ground forces, abducting the president who had led Venezuela since 2013.
Maduro has declared himself a "prisoner of war" and denied the four counts he faces: "narco-terrorism" conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Defence lawyer Barry Pollack said on Wednesday he would seek to dismiss the case on the basis that Maduro should be immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign state.
Since Maduro's abduction, Venezuela has been led by his former vice president and close ally, Delcy Rodriguez, while the United States effectively controls the country's oil exports, with proceeds going into special accounts overseen by Washington.
The United States in April allowed Venezuela to pay for Maduro's and Flores's legal defence, something previously barred by US sanctions.
The couple had sought to have their cases dismissed on grounds that blocking the funding violated the US Constitution's right to counsel of one's choice.
Maduro also faces a civil case in the United States after the families of five young men slain in Venezuela alleged that he ordered the extrajudicial killings.
