Manuel A Noriega

Sentencing was postponed Tuesday for two men convicted of cocaine possession and conspiracy in the drug-trafficking case against deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega. U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler rescheduled the sentencing of real estate agent Brian Alden Davidow, 29, and yacht broker William Saldarriaga, 46, to May 24.

A federal judge on Wednesday approved U.S. plans to send former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to France to face money-laundering charges, finding the French government had given sufficient assurances it would continue to treat Noriega as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Paul Huck followed three other court decisions approving extradition.

Ousted Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega saved the U.S. government $1 million by turning himself over to U.S. authorities. The money was offered as a reward for information leading to Noriega's capture after American troops failed to nab him at the outset of the Dec. 20 invasion. "It was for information leading to his arrest. As far as I know, nobody earned it," a White House official said.

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega will get a new hearing on France's request to extradite him on money-laundering charges, a federal judge decided in Miami. But U.S. District Judge Paul Huck said he would limit the hearing to the question of whether the French government had provided sufficient guarantees that Noriega would continue to be treated as a prisoner of war protected by the Geneva Conventions. Huck did not set a date but indicated the hearing would occur this month.

Videotaped statements from several imprisoned former aides to Manuel A. Noriega are helping defense attorneys in Miami attack key elements of the government's drug-smuggling and racketeering case against the deposed Panamanian dictator. The sworn statements were taped because Panama would not permit the ex-aides to travel to the United States.

A lawyer and co-defendant of Manuel A. Noriega told a trial judge in Miami that he will plead guilty and testify against the former Panamanian leader. Ricardo Bilonick will give "significant testimony" against Noriega, Assistant U.S. Atty. Myles Malman told U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler. Bilonick is charged in a 1988 indictment with racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to manufacture, import and distribute cocaine and importing more than a ton of it.

Defense attorneys for former dictator Manuel A. Noriega opened another front in their attack on his indictment, charging that the Dec. 20 U.S. invasion that led to his arrest caused "indiscriminate" mayhem in Panama that should "shock the conscience of the court." Appealing in a federal court hearing for dismissal of drug charges, the defense played television film clips of the fighting and presented testimony by former Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark about suffering endured by Panamanian civilians.

Prosecutors will drop the weakest of 12 charges in the drug-trafficking indictment against Manuel A. Noriega, a spokeswoman said. The action would not reduce the maximum 145-year prison term Noriega faces if convicted on the remaining 11 counts, said U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Diane Cossin in Miami. Cossin would not say why prosecutors decided to drop the charge. The trial is to begin Thursday.

Two co-defendants of Manuel A. Noriega conspired with the former Panamanian dictator to smuggle a yacht "packed to the gunnels with cocaine" into Miami, prosecutors said Wednesday. But lawyers for Brian Alden Davidow and William Saldarriaga said their clients are victims of political and legal pressures to convict Noriega.

Deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega insisted on "strict confidentiality" when he opened a coded account in the early 1980s at the scandal-plagued Bank of Credit & Commerce International, the former dictator's personal banker testified Thursday. Amjad Awan, 44, a Pakistani-born banker who was convicted of money laundering after a lengthy trial in Tampa, Fla.

A federal judge in Miami cleared the way Friday for the United States to extradite Manuel Noriega to France upon his completion of a federal drug trafficking sentence, ending a tug of war over the former Panamanian dictator's fate. In a 12-page opinion, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler rejected arguments from Noriega's lawyers that the proposed transfer would violate his rights as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention.

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on Thursday made his first court appearance in a dozen years, his face expressionless as his lawyers fought a French request for extradition once he is released from a Florida prison in September. A black coat covering his general's uniform and insignia, the 72-year-old answered tersely in Spanish to U.S. Magistrate William C. Turnoff's questions about his name, age and whether he understood the proceedings. The first hearing on the U.S.

Former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega will be extradited to France to serve a 10-year sentence for money laundering upon his release from prison in Florida this fall, according to Justice Department papers filed in court Tuesday. A French court convicted and sentenced Noriega in absentia in 1999. He was charged with unlawfully depositing millions in drug money in several French bank accounts and laundering the cash partly by purchasing three Paris apartments.

A French court Thursday sentenced former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega and his wife to 10 years in prison for laundering millions of dollars through accounts in several leading French banks. The couple, who were also fined a total of $29.1 million, were tried and sentenced in absentia. Noriega is in prison near Miami, serving a 30-year term for money laundering and drug trafficking. Felicidad Noriega's whereabouts is unknown to authorities. The trial focused on $2.

With no hope of getting his conviction overturned, former Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega is asking a judge to trim his 40-year drug trafficking sentence to 15 years. "Clearly political expediency has infected the parole process," Noriega's attorneys said in a motion filed in Miami. "General Noriega is being required to serve two-thirds of his sentence because of who he is." Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Sullivan must prepare a written response to the motion.

Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega is not entitled to a retrial despite new evidence that Colombia's Cali cocaine cartel bribed a witness to testify against him on drug charges, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler in Miami agreed with prosecutors who argued that the evidence would not have changed the jury's verdict. Noriega was convicted in 1992 after being captured during the U.S. invasion of Panama, and is serving a 40-year sentence for protecting U.S.

Could it be? Was former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega whiling away his idle time in a Florida prison by playing the California Lottery? "No, it's not THAT Manuel Noriega," a lottery spokeswoman said Saturday. "We've all been laughing about that, though." Yes, Manuel Noriega did win $25,000 Saturday in the California Lottery's "Big Spin" show. But this Noriega--Manuel J. Noriega--is a 29-year-old maintenance worker from Montebello. The other Noriega--Manuel A.

Federal prosecutors have acknowledged that a key witness in the drug-trafficking trial of former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega may have been bribed into testifying by the Cali drug cartel of Colombia. The disclosure of an alleged payoff of $1.25 million was made in the government's written response to Noriega's demand for a new trial.