[JURIST] Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli said Wednesday that his government will seek the extradition of former military leader Manuel Noriega, currently being held in France on money laundering charges. Noriega faces charges of human rights violations in Panama for crimes allegedly committed during his 1981-1989 rule. He was convicted on three counts of human rights violations in absentia, and each count carries a 20-year prison sentence. Panama’s Vice President and Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Carlos Varela said Wednesday that his office will write to the judicial branch, which must make the extradition request.
Earlier this week, a French judge ruled that Noriega must remain in custody until his trial. Noriega arrived in France Tuesday morning after being extradited from the US, where he had served a 17-year sentence on drug charges. He had fought extradition from the US since 2007. Last month, the US Supreme Court declined to reconsider Noriega’s petition to stop the extradition process. His lawyers filed the petition in February after the Supreme Court denied certiorari on the case in January. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, sought to enforce a provision of the Geneva Convention that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail by a French court in 1999, but France agreed to hold a new trial if he was extradited.