Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro appeared in a second federal court hearing in Manhattan, wearing an olive green prison uniform and shackles.
Maduro's hands were not shackled during the hearing, however. Since his first hearing in January, the ousted 63-year-old Venezuelan leader has appeared weaker. During the hearing, Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, used headsets for translation and took notes, while the former Venezuelan president periodically communicated with his lawyer.
The hearing lasted approximately an hour and a half and focused on the U.S. government's obstruction of the Venezuelan government's legal fees for Maduro and his wife. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he did not intend to dismiss the case, as requested by the defense, on the grounds that it violated the defendants' right to a lawyer of their choice. The judge also promised to rule soon on whether to order the US administration to allow Venezuela to pay Maduro and Flores' legal fees.
A new hearing date has not yet been set.
Maduro and his wife were captured in early January during an operation by US military and security forces at their presidential residence in Caracas and taken to New York. The couple is accused of participating in a narco-terrorist activity spanning more than 25 years and is being held at a federal detention center in Brooklyn. They vehemently deny all charges.
US revenue from Venezuelan oil sales has exceeded the cost of the military operation in the Latin American country several times, said US President Donald Trump.
„In the first week, we received 100 million barrels of oil. "We recovered more than the cost of the entire attack, in fact we made four to five times more than the cost of it," he said in an interview with Fox News.