Noriega Rebuffs Court, Tells Judge That US Holds Him Illegally

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Friday, January 5, 1990, p. 1A

Miami — Fallen Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega told a federal judge on Thursday that he was a political prisoner. He refused to enter a plea to charges he took $4.6 million to turn his nation into a way station for the cocaine trade.

Noriega, dressed in olive-green trousers and a khaki uniform shirt with a general's four stars on the epaulets, looked calm and poised as his attorneys argued that the U.S. invasion of Panama had broken international law. "General Noriega refuses to submit to the jurisdiction of this court . . . because he is a political prisoner brought to this country illegally," Frank Rubino, Noriega's attorney, told U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler. He said Noriega "was a head of state and immune to prosecution." He also charged that the 12-count drug trafficking indictment against Noriega was politically motivated.

During a 25-minute hearing, Hoeveler ordered that a plea of innocent be entered into the record and remanded Noriega to the custody of U.S. marshals. When questioned by the judge, Noriega stood with a military bearing, with hands clasped tightly behind him. Hoeveler asked Noriega if he understood that he was presumed innocent until proven guilty and that he had the right to a speedy trial. The general, staring at the judge and showing no emotion, replied in Spanish, "Yes, the attorney has explained everything to me."

The defense said the case could take nine months to prepare and six months to try. U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen said he thought the trial would take only two months. Rubino said during the hearing that the general had been told on Wednesday that protection would be withdrawn as crowds surrounded the Vatican embassy in Panama City. He said Noriega had surrendered to avoid further bloodshed.

In Washington, a senior official of President George Bush's administration said the Vatican embassy had been planning to order Noriega to leave at noon on Thursday had he not surrendered to U.S. authorities. That previously undisclosed ultimatum may have been the final straw that prompted the surrender, the official said. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said he believed Noriega was devastated when he realized that thousands of Panamanians were demonstrating against him outside the Vatican embassy in Panama City Wednesday, also leading to his surrender. "He made the request that he be allowed to surrender in uniform, that his family be notified, that he be allowed to make some calls, and that he surrender to a general officer, and all of that was worked out," Cheney said. He also said Noriega had been assured that the drug charges against him did not carry the death penalty, and other officials said he was promised a fair trial.

Noriega is accused of accepting $4.6 million in bribes from Colombian drug traffickers to aid and protect their smuggling and processing operation - charges that carry 145 years in prison and $1.1 million in fines. A bond hearing was waived until it is requested by the defense. Noriega, who gave his age as 51 although some records indicate he may be older, will be held without bond.

Noriega surrendered Wednesday night to U.S. soldiers outside Panama City's Vatican embassy 10 days after he took refuge there. He was flown into Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami under cover of night.

Exactly a year ago, Hoeveler ruled that the United States had jurisdiction, rejecting defense claims of immunity for a head of state. The judge said the State Department never recognized Noriega's political legitimacy. U.S. soldiers who searched Noriega's military headquarters in Panama City are said to have found documents and files supporting the prosecution case. That, along with the arrests of Lt. Col. Luis del Cid - one of Noriega's right-hand men - and others has made the case stronger, said Richard Gregorie, who headed the investigation until he left the U.S. attorney's office a year ago.

Lt. Col. Nivaldo Madrinan, a close associate of Noriega's and former head of his secret police, is the latest Noriega ally to surrender. He emerged from the Vatican embassy on Thursday, where he had sought asylum, and was taken into custody by U.S. soldiers. Madrinan has been linked to a number of human rights abuses during the Noriega era.

In another development, Cuba evacuated about 60 people from its embassy, which has been surrounded by U.S. soldiers. Those evacuated boarded two charter buses and a minibus, which left in a convoy surrounded by U.S. military vehicles to go to Panama's international airport at mid-afternoon. Noriega's wife, Felicidad, and their three daughters, who took refuge in the embassy, were not believed to have been among those on the buses. Cuba's Vice President Carlos Rafael Rodriguez said later that his country did not consider it had diplomatic relations with the new government of Panama. "In practice, Cuba does not have diplomatic relations with that government, which it does not recognize," he said.

The Vatican embassy had told Noriega it would lift its diplomatic immunity and invite Panamanian security forces inside to arrest him if he did not voluntarily leave, a spokesman said Thursday. The spokesman, the Rev. Javier Villanueva, said Noriega was not given a specific deadline. Villanueva is assistant to the papal nuncio, Monsignor Sebastian Laboa. "But if he would not have given himself up, the Panamanian government, not the U.S. government, would have been invited to send in forces to take him out. We would have lifted the diplomatic immunity," Villanueva said in a telephone interview. Bush called Pope John Paul II "to thank him for the distinguished efforts of the Vatican and the papal nuncio in Panama" in getting Noriega to surrender.

Maj. Gen. Marc Cisneros, the commander of U.S. Army South, confirmed that Noriega kept a submachine gun under his bed during his stay at the embassy and acknowledged that one of Noriega's bodyguards "had been helpful" to U.S. interests. The reference to the bodyguard came after the Spanish news agency, EFE, reported that Capt. Elieser Gaitan, head of Noriega's bodyguards, secretly went into Noriega's room Wednesday and removed the submachine gun and ammunition.

U.S. Withdrawal

Meanwhile, U.S. defense officials said many of the 13,000 American soldiers who invaded Panama last month could be returned to the United States within the next few weeks. Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew to Panama on Thursday to set up a return timetable for the airborne and Ranger forces, who joined 12,000 other U.S. soldiers already stationed in Panama in the Dec. 20 invasion.

Official Had Fat Account

An informed source said Thursday that Vice President Arias Calderon had forced Lt. Col. Roberto Armijo, the commander of the new Panamanian Security Force, to resign Wednesday when Panamanian investigators discovered a bank account in Armijo's name with $1.2 million in it and the colonel could not explain the source of the funds. Armijo's dismissal after only eight days on the job was particularly difficult for the new administration, the source said, because Armijo, a top officer in Noriega's Panama Defense Forces, had worked closely with the new government.