French foreign ministry Wednesday confirmed that it had sent a request for the extradition of former Panamanian president Manuel Noriega to the United States.
"On July 1, 1999, a French court tried and sentenced Noriega to a 10-year jail term in absentia for conducting financial transactions in the country using funds obtained from drug trafficking," foreign ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said during a regular press briefing.
"An extradition request was sent to the United States in 2004 for examination within the framework of the existing treaty between our two countries. The request is currently being examined by the U.S. justice system," the spokesman said.
General Manuel Noriega was born in 1938 and went on to become an influential Panamanian politician in the 1970's and 1980's before falling from grace.
In 1988, an American court convicted Noriega, who is suspected of having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), on charges of drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering. The court also accused Noriega of transferring sensitive information and technologies to former Soviet countries.
In 1989, General Noriega declared himself president of Panama and in a swift rejoinder, the then U.S. president George Bush ordered the invasion of Panama to oust him in December 1989.
During the operation that followed, Noriega was captured and sent to United States where he was condemned to serve a 40-year jail sentence in 1992. Noriega, who is currently serving his sentence in a Florida jail, has had his sentence reduced on health grounds and is set to be released in September 2007.
Source: Xinhua
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