Blast from the past

Blast from the past

Manuel Noriega finishes US prison sentence, extradited to France

Talk about a blast from the past.

If he is convicted and jailed in France he would still have to be sent back to Panama to face even more charges.

Manuel Noriega, the former drug-running dictator of Panama ousted by a US invasion in 1989, was flown out of America last night en route to Paris where he will face trial on fresh money laundering charges.

Noriega's extradition brings to an end his 21-year spell in a Miami jail, where he held a unique status. He was the first head of a foreign country to be convicted of crimes in the US courts, and he became America's only official prisoner of war.