A US federal judge on Thursday blocked the extradition of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to France, saying that he had not exhausted his possible appeals.
Noriega, 73, in September completed a 17-year US prison term on drug charges but has remained in US custody while appealing his extradition to France where he faces money laundering charges.
Judge Paul Huck in Miami said that the Panamanian former strongman was entitled to have his appeals heard by a court in the state of Georgia, and possibly even before the US Supreme Court.
"It appears that these are legal issues on which no other federal court has ruled, directly or indirectly," Huck said, ordering that the extradition procedures remain suspended.
delay
The ruling was likely to delay Noriega's extradition -- if it happens at all -- by months or even years, court observers said, with two further levels of appeal remaining.
"There are two appellate courts in US, and the judge granted Noriega's right to go until the whole process of appealing is finished at the US Supreme Court," Noriega's lawyer Jon May said.
Earlier this month the federal judge rejected a petition by Noriega to prevent his extradition on grounds that in France he would be denied the benefits he has in the US as a prisoner of war.
A French court sentenced Noriega to 10 years in prison in 1999 after his conviction in absentia on various charges, but authorities say he would be given a new trial on allegations that he deposited US$3.15 million in cocaine trafficking profits in French bank accounts in the 1980s.
surrender
The former army general held sway in Panama from 1984 until he surrendered on Jan. 3, 1990, to US troops who had invaded the country three weeks earlier.
A US Cold War ally and one-time CIA informant whose involvement with drug trafficking eventually became an embarrassment for Washington, Noriega was then flown on a military plane to Miami, where he was tried on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering.
Noriega's lawyers have sought to have him not extradited but returned to Panama, arguing that he should be repatriated under the international Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
The Panamanian government has also said that it will seek Noriega's extradition to his home country, where he faces prosecution over the disappearances and murders of opposition members, but it has not yet launched such a procedure.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS