Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife will stand trial on drug trafficking charges in June next year, reports Associated Press.

The judge scheduled the trial for June 1 at the request of lawyers for both sides.

Defense attorneys will begin filing motions to challenge the indictment in early September, and the couple will appear in court on November 17 for oral arguments on those motions.

Maduro, 63, and his 69-year-old wife, Cilia Flores, have been held in a Brooklyn jail since U.S. troops seized them at their home in Caracas during a nighttime raid and brought them to New York in early January.

They face life imprisonment if jurors find them involved in a conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. Both deny the charges.