Noriega appears in court on extradition request

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega appeared in federal court in Miami today as attorneys debated where he will be sent when he finishes his drug and racketeering sentence in a Miami prison next month.

Noriega’s attorneys argue that he is a prisoner of war and should be sent to Panama, where he wants to fight a conviction in the killing of two political opponents.

US prosecutors, however, are pushing for him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted in absentia in 1999 on money-laundering charges.

“The government of the US, for its own reasons, very much wants to see Gen Noriega sent to France,” Noriega’s attorney Jon May told Senior US District Judge William Hoeveler.

“There is something very political going on in this event,” May later told reporters.

Federal prosecutors had no comment.

Hoeveler, the same jurist who presided over Noriega’s original trial, said he will rule on August 24 on Noriega’s request to be sent immediately to Panama when he gets out of prison.

A magistrate judge will separately decide on France’s extradition request. Federal prosecutors said Hoeveler should allow that judge to rule first. A hearing in his court is set for August 28.

Prosecutor Sean Cronin told the judge that if Noriega were sent to Panama, that country would not allow him to be extradited to France because of his Panamanian citizenship. He also faces more serious charges in Panama.

Noriega’s attorneys argue that Hoeveler had previously declared Noriega a prisoner of war, a designation that they say requires he be sent home to Panama under the Geneva Conventions. Cronin said the Geneva Conventions do not prohibit his extradition to France.

Noriega wore a military uniform with his dark hair slicked back, pausing at points to put on glasses and read documents, and conferring with an attorney. He used a headset to follow a Spanish translation.

US forces captured Noriega after a 1989 military invasion ordered by then-President George H Bush, in part because of the Panamanian’s links to drug traffickers. It later emerged that Noriega had been on the CIA payroll for years, assisting US interests throughout Latin America, including acting as liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

In 1992, Noriega was tried and convicted in the US of accepting bribes to allow shipments of US-bound cocaine through Panama. His 30-year sentence has been reduced for good behaviour.

Panamanians, meanwhile, are split on whether Noriega should be imprisoned in their country. A poll conducted in July before the US announced plans to try to extradite him to France found 47% of Panamanians want him imprisoned in their country and 44% want him sent to a third country.