PANAMA’S former dictator Manuel Noriega was last night convicted of money-laundering and sentenced to seven years’ jail by a French court.
Nioriega had previously spent the last two decades in a US prison.
The 76-year-old former general showed no emotion as he heard the verdict through his Spanish interpreter in the Paris courtroom, dressed in a black suit and white shirt.
The court ordered the seizure of E2.3 million in frozen French bank accounts held in Noriega’s name in a judgment that his lawyers slammed as “extremely severe”.
Noriega is “downhearted and surprised by this decision, which he can hardly comprehend”, his lawyer Yves Leberquier said.
Defence lawyer Olivier Metzner said the verdict was part of a process of “political score-settling . . . which pleases the American authorities”.
During three days of hearings last week, Noriega denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s and said he was framed by his one-time sponsor and ally, the US.
The ageing former military leader testified that Washington had turned against him in the 1980s when he refused to allow Panama to become a staging ground for operations against leftists across Central America.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum 10-year jail sentence for Noriega, who has already served two decades in a Florida jail and was extradited from the US to France in April.
Mr Leberquier described the sentence as “extremely severe” and said the defence would consider an appeal.
Noriega’s lawyers had argued that a long jail term would amount to a life sentence for the general, who has partial paralysis and high blood pressure.
A French court had sentenced him to 10 years in jail when he was tried in absentia in 1999 on charges of laundering the equivalent of E2.3m from the Medellin drug cartel through French banks.
The drug money funnelled in the late 1980s was used by Noriega’s wife and a shell company to buy three luxury apartments in Paris, according to the prosecution.
Noriega was granted a retrial as part of the terms for his extradition from the US on April 26.
His lawyers had sought his acquittal, arguing that the charges against him hinged on dodgy testimony from former drug traffickers who were paid and given protection by US authorities.
The pock-marked general known as “Pineapple Face” was arrested by US troops who invaded Panama in 1989.
The one-time strongman was a key asset for the CIA but fell out with Washington when he turned his strategically important country into a drugs hub.
Much of Noriega’s trial testimony centred on his bank accounts and his ties to the now-defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which handled his financial affairs.
Asked about the source of millions in cash deposits at the bank, Noriega said the money came from business ventures including duty-free sales at Panama airport and life insurance policies.
The elderly former military leader appeared frail at the outset of the trial, but later put up a combative defence, at times punching the air with his hands.
His wife, Felicidad, who was not on trial, remained in Panama but his three daughters sat in the Paris courtroom, listening attentively and taking notes during the entire proceedings.
Be the first to comment