A Paris court has convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money in France and ordered him to spend seven years behind bars — a decision that left friends and foes worried he might die in a prison far from home.
Wednesday’s sentence in France, where Noriega was extradited 10 weeks ago, came on top of his two decades already spent in a US prison. The court said there was enough evidence to establish that the equivalent millions of euros that flowed through Noriega’s French bank accounts in the late 1980s were kickbacks from drug traffickers.
The three-judge panel ordered the seizure of 2.3 million euros (US$2.89 million) frozen in his French bank accounts. They also demanded that he pay 1 million euros in damages to Panama and 2.3 million euros in customs fines.
For Noriega, who gives his age as 76 and is in poor health, the future is cloudy. Despite the seven-year sentence, he is likely to be eligible for parole within a year because of the time he was held in the US awaiting extradition to France. However, Panama is seeking his extradition from France on much more serious crimes, including the murder of political opponents.
Noriega’s lawyers say he wants to return home.
“The rights of all the countries have prevailed except ours,” said Alberto Almanza, who headed a Truth Commission for more than a decade to investigate rights abuses under Noriega.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not