Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

France judge orders Noriega to remain in custody pending trial

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A French judge ruled Tuesday that former Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega must remain in custody until his trial on money laundering charges. Noriega arrived in France Tuesday morning after being extradited from the US, where he had served a 17-year sentence on drug charges. Noriega appeared Tuesday before French prosecutors to hear the charges against him, which stem from allegedly laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. He then appeared before a judge to request that he be sent back to Panama immediately. His lawyers argued that he is immune from prosecution as a former head of state and that the statute of limitations has expired. The judge rejected those arguments, remanding Noriega into custody. Noriega fought extradition from the US since 2007. Last month, the US Supreme Court declined to reconsider Noriega's petition to stop the extradition process. His lawyers filed the petition in February after the Supreme Court denied certiorari on the case in January. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, sought to enforce a provision of the Geneva Convention that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail by a French court in 1999, but France agreed to hold a new trial if he was extradited.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).