Noriegas trial rests on health check

FORMER MILITARY  dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega, will  undergo a health assessment to determine if  he is fit to appear at his  July 4  trial for the death and disappearance of Heliodoro Portugal.

Judges of Panama’s Second Court  have ordered the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelfc) to carry out the assessment  to validate examinations f Noriega by internal medicine specialist Irving Carrasco and neurosurgeon Eimir Perez Arjona.

They examined the former Panama strong man in May  and established that he suffers from serious health problems that prevent him facing trial. He was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor that should be operated upon.

However, the Second Court wants  confirmation, from the Imelfc, of  his real health condition to determine whether it can appear at the trial.

Judicial sources reported that Noriega has opposed   the process, after the court called him to trial along with retired soldiers Melbourne Walker, Moses Correa, Aquilino Sieiro, Pablo Garrido, Lennin Miranda, Pedro Del Cid and Gabriel Correa.

The defense team of the  former dictator said that Noriega was extradited to face only convictions for the murders of Moses Giroldi (1989) and Hugo Spadafora (1985).

Heliodoro Portugal’s remains were found in 1999 in the former headquarters of the Pumas de Tocumen, having disappeared in July 1970.

Noriega has been detained since December 11, 2011 in the El Renacer  prison, after his extradition from France.

He has been behind bars since his arrest during the  US invasion of Panama in 1989, first in the United States and then in France. His lawyers have been attempting to get him transferred to house arrest. A move that has been opposed by relatives of soldiers he ordered killed in 1989 in what was known as the Albrook Massacre.