Noriega

MIAMI (AP):

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega can be extradited to France once he completes his United States prison sentence for a 1992 drug trafficking conviction, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

Noriega, 73, is due to be released from a Florida prison on September 9.

He wanted U.S. officials to send him back to his home country, but France wants him to face charges of laundering more than $3 million in drug profits through French banks and purchases that included luxurious apartments in Paris.

Another federal judge last week rejected a claim that Noriega should be returned to Panama because he was held in the U.S. as a prisoner of war.

Noriega's lawyer Frank Rubino said he would likely appeal.

"I can assure this court and everyone else: You haven't heard the end of this," Rubino said.

Noriega was tried and convicted in the United States after he was captured by U.S. troops who invaded Panama in 1989 in part to oust him from power.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff's ruling yesterday was technically a recommendation to the State Depart-ment for Noriega's extradition to France, which has assured the U.S. through diplomatic channels that Noriega will be held there as a POW once extradited.

The ruling was based in part on the decision last week by Senior U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler. Hoeveler originally declared Noriega a POW, but he ruled Friday that the designation does not make Noriega immune from extradition to foreign countries for other crimes.

Noriega contends that under the Geneva Conventions, a POW must be returned home after hostilities have ceased _ in his case, more than 20 years ago. But federal prosecutors say POWs that have pending criminal charges must face them, or be sent to a third country that has a legitimate extradition treaty with the U.S., such as France.

"The rights asserted by General Noriega simply do not exist under the Geneva Conventions," Turnoff said yesterday.