Panama’s ex-dictator Manuel Noriega ‘to claim diplomatic immunity’
By ANITuesday, April 27, 2010
LONDON - Panama’s former dictator Manuel Noriega is expected to claim diplomatic immunity when he appears in a French court on money laundering charges after being extradited from the United States.
Noriega, who was released after 20 years in jail in the US on drugs charges, appeared before prosecutors at Paris’ main courthouse on Tuesday morning.
He arrived from Miami early Tuesday after losing a three-year battle in US courts against being sent to France.
Noriega’s lawyers were expected to argue that as a former president and a prisoner of war, France’s legal system has no jurisdiction to try him.
“If the rule of law is applied there should not be a trial in France because of the judicial immunity of a former head of state,” The Telegraph quoted Yves Leberquier, Noriega’s French lawyer, as saying. (ANI)
