Anyone realize the possible implications of Noriega's release from prison?

MANUEL Noriega, the former military dictator in Panama, is preparing to return to his homeland to face the music for his murderous eight-year reign after being granted early release from an American prison.

The US Parole Commission has ruled he will be set free from the federal prison in Miami on September 9, having served almost two-thirds of a 30-year sentence for drug-trafficking and racketeering.
But his freedom is unlikely to last beyond his first steps outside the jail. Noriega, 70, who was forced from power after the US invasion of Panama in 1989, is wanted there and in France for crimes perpetrated during his de facto rule.

He has already been convicted and sentenced in both countries - in France for money-laundering and in Panama for two murders, including that of Hugo Spadafora, a political foe whose severed head was found dumped in a US Postal Service mailbag in 1984.

Noriega's lawyer, Frank Ruino, said his client expected to have the case reopened on his return and would "adequately defend himself".

But Panama has already filed a request for his extradition, indicating it is not in the mood for mercy.

French authorities are expected to follow suit.

Noriega was widely believed to have been a participant in the 1968 army coup that overthrew Panamanian leader Arnulfo Arias. He was then appointed head of military intelligence, the second-most powerful position in the country.

Noriega, nicknamed Pineapple Face because of his pockmarked complexion, conducted a ruthless campaign against peasant guerillas and oversaw the "disappearances" of numerous political opponents of the new Government before promoting himself to general and imposing himself as de facto leader in 1984.

He turned the 12,000-strong Panama Defence Force into a mafia-style operation, demanded a cut of every crime-related dollar deposited in Panamanian banks, and founded the Western hemisphere's first "narco-kleptocracy" - a regime powered and propped up by drug profits.

Yet the US looked the other way, retaining him on the CIA payroll to the tune of $US100,000 a year in return for favours that spanned two decades and four presidencies. The relationship ended after Noriega tried to rig elections in 1989 and unleashed hit squads to suppress demonstrations.


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