Noriega trial date for 1970 killing

FORMER PANAMA   dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega and a group of his former underlings have been called to trial for the kidnapping and killing of union leader Heliodoro Portugal  in 1970.

The trial follows  a ruling    of  the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, last August, upholding  a decision of the Second Court, calling  Noriega  and seven other former military  personnel to trial for the death of Portugal. The others are: Melbourne Walker, Moses Correa, Aquilino Sieiro, Pablo Garrido, Lennin Miranda, Pedro Del Cid and Gabriel Correa

In 1999 the remains of the unionist opposition and Portugal were found in a former headquarters of the located in Tocumen.

Noriega has  been  held in the El Renacer prison  since December 2011, after being extradited from France. Before that he spent 17 years in a US jail after being deposed during the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

The former dictator is also mentioned in the case of the disappearance of Luis Antonio Quiros and Everett Clayton Kimble Guerrera .