NEW YORK — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday, where a judge was set to consider his request to use Venezuelan funds to pay his lawyer or have his narco-terrorism case thrown out. The hearing will be the first for Maduro and his wife and codefendant, Cilia Flores, since their initial appearance in January following their stunning capture in ...

Maduro and wife Cilia Flores were captured by U.S. military forces in Venezuela and face narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and weapons charges.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

NEW YORK — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro arrived in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday, where a judge was set to consider his request to use Venezuelan funds to pay his lawyer or have his narco-terrorism case thrown out.

The hearing will be the first for Maduro and his wife and codefendant, Cilia Flores, since their initial appearance in January following their stunning capture in Caracas by U.S. special forces, in which at least 100 people were reportedly killed.

Federal prosecutors allege Maduro and his wife engaged in a narco-terrorism conspiracy, plotting to import thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. over a decades-long period to fund illicit government activities. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges carrying a potential life sentence, with Maduro telling Hellerstein in January he had been “kidnapped” and was “a prisoner of war.”

Barry Pollack, an attorney for the ousted Latin American leader, has told Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein he cannot continue to represent Maduro without payment and that the couple is unable to afford a defense without access to funds from the Venezuelan government, which is being blocked by U.S. sanctions. Cilia Flores Maduro, 69, has made the same request.

Maduro, 63, who’s incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, has moved to have the case dismissed as a result of the dispute.

In his dismissal motion last month, Pollack argued the U.S. government had interfered with his constitutional right to counsel and his due process right to present a defense.

Without the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) granting a license to access to the funds, Pollack wrote, “Not only would the court need to appoint counsel and foist the cost of Mr. Maduro’s defense on the United States taxpayers, despite the willingness and obligation of the government of Venezuela to pay Mr. Maduros defense costs, but also any verdict against Mr. Maduro would be constitutionally suspect.”

OFAC initially issued the license in the days after the Maduros’ capture, only to revoke it hours later.

Opposing the motion to dismiss, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office has told the court it has made an exception to sanctions by permitting the couple to use personal funds to cover their legal fees.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kaylan Lasky last month wrote that the Treasury refused an additional exception that would “allow them to pay their legal fees from a slush fund controlled by a sanctioned government.”

“That is because OFAC regulations expressly prohibit using a sanctioned entity’s funds to pay a separate sanctioned person’s attorneys’ fees,” the prosecutor wrote.

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