U.S. Court Rules Manuel Noriega Can Be Extradited to France

On August 29, 2007, a U.S. District Court in Miami ruled that the former Panamanian head of state Manuel Noriega can be extradited to France after the end of his U.S. prison sentence for a 1992 conviction. The three-page certification of extraditability and order of commitment issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge William C. Turnoff found that the French charges of “engaging of financial transactions with the proceeds of illegal drug trafficking, in violation of section 415 of the French Custom Code” was an extraditable offense within the meaning of Article 2 of the U.S.-French Extradition Treaty of February 1, 2002. With respect to Noriega’s argument that his extradition to France is barred by the Third Geneva Convention, Turnoff found that, in light of the historic and statutorily limited role of the Magistrate Court in reviewing an extradition request, that claim was not properly raised with the court...[more]