Noriegas last stand

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega will soon be heading to France as his last hope of avoiding extradition was killed by The U.S. Supreme Court.

The court  refused on Monday March 22, to review its previous decision to allow the extradition to go ahead.
The man whose conflicts with the US administration resulted in the invasion of Panama and the deaths of untold numbers of citizens will face money laundering charges,

America’s country’s highest court issued its opinion without comment.

Noriega’s lawyers had requested in February to reconsider the January decision in which the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Noriega to prevent his extradition to France.

The former strongman of Panama is in a Miami prison, after serving a sentence for aiding the Colombian Medellin cartel smuggle drugs into the United States. But  he had special treatment ashe was classified as a POW, Prisoner of War.

His lawyers had argued that Noriega should be sent back to his country of origin, instead of being extradited.
In France, Noriega was convicted in absentia to ten years in 1999 for laundering drug money, after $ 3.1 million was laundered through French banks in the country and through the purchase of apartments in Paris.

In Panama, Noriega was also convicted in absentia for various crimes, including murder of opposition leader Hugo Spadafora and Major Moises Giroldi, for which he was received sentences of 15 and 20 years.