PARIS — A Paris court today convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money in France in the 1980s and ordered him to spend seven years behind bars — a sentence that comes on top of his two decades already spent in a U.S. prison.
The three-judge panel also ordered the seizure of euro2.3 million ($2.89 million) that has long been frozen in Noriega’s accounts.
Noriega, who gives his age as 76, was deposed after a 1989 U.S. invasion and went on to serve 20 years in a Florida prison for drug trafficking. He was extradited to France in April to stand trial on accusations related to his assets there.
The prosecution argued that millions of dollars that passed through Noriega’s French accounts during the late 1980s were kickbacks from the powerful Medellin cocaine cartel.
His lawyers had pressed for an acquittal, saying the trial was part of a political plot against him and arguing that Noriega’s age and poor health mean he would certainly die behind bars if convicted.
Noriega has blood pressure problems and is paralyzed on the left side following a stroke, his lawyers say. There has long been confusion about his true date of birth.
In court, Noriega portrayed himself as a foe of drug traffickers and said the money in his French accounts came from personal and family businesses. He also said some of it was payments from the CIA.
Noriega had long been considered an important CIA asset before he joined forces with drug traffickers and was implicated in the death of a political opponent.
His lawyers suggested his U.S. conviction was part of a strategy to keep Noriega silent after his relationship with the CIA went bad.
In an energetic hour-long monologue in court last week, Noriega said his problems began when he refused to cooperate in a U.S. plan aimed at ousting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the 1980s. He also blamed the U.S. for a “conspiracy” that has kept him behind bars for 20 years.
France already convicted Noriega and his wife in absentia in 1999 for laundering cocaine profits through three major French banks and using drug cash to invest in three luxurious Paris apartments on the Left Bank. He was granted a retrial.
Noriega is being held at the La Sante prison in southern Paris. His lawyers say the prison is squalid and unfit for a man of his age and rank. France has refused to grant him prisoner of war status, which he had in the U.S.
Behind bars in Miami, Noriega had perks including the right to wear his military uniform and insignia. In France, he is not allowed to wear his trademark uniform and has come to court in an ordinary suit.
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