Panama's Noriega is extradited from US to France

TextPanama's Noriega is extradited from US to France

The former Panamanian leader, Manuel Noriega, has been extradited to France by the United States after spending more than 20 years in a prison there.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed a "surrender warrant" after all judicial challenges were resolved

news.bbc.co.uk...

wow..who knew? I thought he was gonna do all his time in a US prison.

I was surprised by this one as well. I wonder if this was a move on the part of the United States to give the Europeans a favor, although I wonder why the French would really care. Weird stuff really, I really didn't think anyone had given Noriega a thought since the 80s.

reply to post by ProjectJimmy


Same here, i figured they would just let him rot, i was totally caught off guard by this. Any one from France out there wan't to enlighten me/us why this might have happened after all this time?
i read this .
"A court in France convicted Noriega in his absence in 1999 for laundering money through French banks, though it says he will be granted a new trial. "

but still doesn't explain the whole story.

[edit on 26-4-2010 by baddmove]

Ah now this is interesting, I was just browsing the Wikipedia page on Noriega, and it said that he was appealing the extradition to France because he did not think they would honor his status as a prisoner of war. Perhaps the United States let him go because the French wouldn't have to extend all of the rights that being a POW confers.

On top of this he is also looking at 20 years in Panama but if he makes it back there it will probably be house arrest because of his age.

I applaud him for not ratting out G.W.H. Bush's drug smuggling operation in Panama. Keeping your mouth shut for that long, thats gotta be a record.

I have been interested in Manuel Noriega since a trip in '96 to Hawaii. Because this was in the news, I will tell you something that happened to try and find the answer.

My mom and I went to Hawaii for a vacation after her mother died. We went out to eat our first night there. It was at a nice steak and lobster restaurant of Waikiki Beach. We walked in and my mom noticed a familiar face behind us. It was Manuel Noriega sitting behind us. She looked surprised and winked at me. After we left, she told me who he was. I was 12 and didn't know who he was. She remembers the acne scars on his cheeks, and how he brought out a roll of hundred dollar bills like in the movies. He nodded at her like he knew she recognized him.

It was all strange. There wasn't anyone else in the restaurant other than my mom, me, Manuel Noriega and his dining companion. The food wasn't that good either.

Now I would love to know why he would be there, b/c he was suppose to be in jail in Miami. I have looked for more Manuel Noriega sightings in Hawaii and find nothing.

Maybe Washingtons's afraid he may cause them problems back in Panama.As a former head of state i think they should release him now.

reply to post by mweiss


wow, that's really an odd story, if he was supposed to be in a fla. jail, i wonder why he was eating dinner in Hawaii. hmm, this is just an odd story all around. Hopefully there will be a follow up story on the msm soon.