World Jan. 15, 2009 - 02:47AM JST ( 1 )

MIAMI —

Panamanian former strongman Manuel Noriega urged a U.S. appeals court Wednesday to block his extradition to France, with his lawyer saying he should be returned to his home country, given his status as a “prisoner of war.”

A panel of three judges heard arguments from Noriega attorney Jon May, although the jailed Panamanian former leader was not in court.

“We are optimistic that the judges will take the right decision. You never know how long it would take a decision, maybe months,” he said.

Last year, a U.S. federal judge blocked Noriega’s extradition to France, saying he had not exhausted his possible appeals.

Noriega, 73, in September completed a 17-year U.S. prison term on drug charges but has remained in U.S. custody while appealing his extradition to France, where he faces money laundering charges.

Judge Paul Huck in Miami said Jan 31, 2008 that the Panamanian former strongman was entitled to have his case heard by an appeals court and possibly even before the US Supreme Court.

“It appears that these are legal issues on which no other federal court has ruled, directly or indirectly,” Huck said at the time, ordering that the extradition procedures remain suspended.

A French court sentenced Noriega to 10 years in prison in 1999 after his conviction in absentia on various charges, but authorities say he would be given a new trial on allegations that he deposited $3.15 million in cocaine trafficking profits in French bank accounts in the 1980s.

The former army general held sway in Panama from 1984 until he surrendered on Jan 3, 1990 to U.S. troops who had invaded the country three weeks earlier.

A U.S. Cold War ally and one-time CIA informant whose involvement with drug trafficking eventually became an embarrassment for Washington, Noriega was then flown on a military plane to Miami, where he was tried on charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering.

Noriega’s lawyers have sought to block his extradition and have him returned to Panama, arguing that he should be repatriated under the international Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Panamanian government has said it also want Noriega returned to his home country, where he faces prosecution over the disappearances and murders of opposition members, but has not yet launched an extradition procedure.

Noriega attorney May argued that “the government thinks we don’t have the right to raise the Geneva Conventions any more in this case, but we think that that’s not the right interpretation.

“We still have the Supreme Court if necessary to clarify the issue, but also a new secretary of state and a new Congress,” May added.

Wire reports