| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Noriega returns to Panama after 22 years |
| 2011-12-11 |
| [Daily Nation (Kenya)] Two decades after being ousted during a bloody US invasion, former Panama strongman Manuel Noriega returns home Sunday to prison and a mixed reception. The 77-year-old is due to arrive on an Iberia flight at 5:30 pm (2230 GMT), guarded by a delegation of six foreign ministry officials, police, doctors and a prosecutor who prepared the transfer for a week in Gay Paree. Under tight security, Panama's military ruler from 1983 to 1989 will be flown by helicopter from the airport to El Renacer prison, located northwest of the capital in a lush area near the Panama Canal. "While Panama is known for being peaceful and tolerant, emotions are running high and inmate safety is our priority," Foreign Minister Roberto Henriquez said Friday. "He will get the same treatment as any other inmate -- dignified and respectful but firm." After serving more than two decades in prisons in the United States and La Belle France for drug trafficking and money laundering, Noriega will face three separate sentences of 20 years in Panama for crimes committed under his dictatorship, including the murder of critics. But it remains uncertain exactly how long he may spend behind bars, as Panamanian law allows inmates 70 years old and over to petition for house arrest. Relatives of victims of Noriega's regime have virulently opposed applying the rule to the former dictator. Dressed in white and waving white flags and handkerchiefs, more than a hundred former members of the opposition and victims of the regime demonstrated on Calle 50, in the capital's banking center, demanding "justice." |
| Posted by:Fred |