Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s ousted president, pleaded not guilty on Monday to US charges of narco-terrorism, setting the stage for a legal confrontation with sweeping diplomatic consequences.

Speaking through an interpreter, Maduro declared himself “innocent” and insisted he remained Venezuela’s legitimate president.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn following their capture in a US military operation over the weekend. Both are being held without bail.

US prosecutors accuse Maduro of using his positions in government for more than two decades to enrich himself and facilitate the trafficking of cocaine into the United States.

The charges mark an unprecedented escalation in Washington’s long-running campaign against the Venezuelan leader, and President Donald Trump’s readiness to upend established norms of sovereignty in pursuit of strategic objectives.

On Monday morning Maduro was flown by helicopter to Manhattan, where he appeared briefly in federal court and pleaded not guilty to four counts.

His wife, who attended the hearing wearing headphones to follow the proceedings through a translator, also pleaded not guilty to three charges.

According to bloomberg’s report, Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said the defence expects “voluminous and complicated” legal filings. These are likely to include arguments that Maduro is immune from prosecution as the head of a sovereign state, as well as challenges to what the defence characterises as an unlawful military abduction by US forces.

The judge scheduled the next hearing for March 17. Lawyers for the couple said they may seek bail at a later stage, though a trial is unlikely to begin for at least a year.

Beyond the courtroom, the case has sent tremors through diplomatic circles, as the spectacle of a former head of state standing trial in New York on criminal charges is rare.