French court orders more jail time for Manuel Noriega

A French court convicted Panama's former dictator Manuel Noriega of laundering drug money yesterday and handed down a seven-year sentence, jailing him again after two decades in a US prison.

The 76-year-old general stood hunched over and showed no emotion as he heard the verdict through his Spanish interpreter in the Paris courtroom, dressed in a black suit and white shirt.

The court ordered the seizure of €2.3 million in frozen French bank accounts held in Gen. Noriega's name, in a judgment that his lawyers slammed as "extremely severe."

Gen. Noriega had denied taking payments from Colombian drug lords in the 1980s when he took the stand last week and said he was the victim of a set-up orchestrated by his one-time ally, the United States.

The ex-leader, who ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, testified that Washington had turned against him in the 1980s when he refused to allow Panama to become a staging ground for operations against leftists across Central America.

Gen. Noriega is "downhearted and surprised by this decision which he can hardly comprehend," his lawyer Yves Leberquier told reporters.

Co-defence lawyer Olivier Metzner said the verdict was part of a process of "political score-settling... which pleases the American authorities."

The pock-marked general known as "Pineapple Face" was deposed by US troops that invaded Panama in December 1989.

The one-time strongman was a key asset for the US Central Intelligence Agency but fell out with Washington when he turned his strategically important country into a drugs hub.