Noriega, France bound, facing new trial in Panama

A new case against former dictator Manuel Noriega for his alleged role in the death and disappearance and death of an activist in 1970, will be opened in Panama in July.

Noriega, currently in the United States and awaiting extradition to France, is accused of having overseen the arrest of leftist activist Heliodoro Portugal by the military when Noriega commanded the Panamanian Defense Forces.
Portugal’s body was found in September 1999 — more than 29 years after his arrest — near a former military barracks near Tocumen International Airport.
District Attorney Argentina Barrera said an initial hearing was scheduled for July 7 in Panama City.
"Noriega would be happy to face trial in his country because he wants to come and die in Panama," his lawyer Julio Berrios told AFP.
The US Supreme Court threw out a bid last month by Noriega to halt his extradition to France, where he is wanted on money-laundering charges, closing the last legal avenue for the former military strongman to challenge his extradition.
Noriega, 75, was overthrown and captured during the US invasion of Panama in 1989, dubbed Operation Just Cause.
In 2009, the government of former president Martin Torrijos publicly recognized the harm cause to Portugal’s family, in accordance with a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
The court had ordered Panama to pay Portugal’s family $190,000 dollars in compensation for their loss.
The family this week said they want Noriega to be returned to Panama for the trial.

Only  the intervention of US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton can save him from deportation to France where he has been sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail.

In Panama he has two outstanding sentences totaling 25 years for murders.