Former Panamanian ruler Manuel Noriega might as well as book his ticket to France after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his request to stay on American soil.The high court ignored Noriega’s appeal to avoid being sent to France where he was convicted in absentia for money laundering. French officials have said that they will grant them a new trial though Noriega wants to return to his homeland where he awaits a 20-year murder sentence.
The high court refused to explain why they rejected Noriega’s appeal though that didn’t stop two of the tribunal’s most conservative justices from voicing their displeasure:
Two justices – Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia – issued a dissent, saying the high court should have agreed to hear Mr. Noriega’s appeal.Noriega was arrested in 1989 after a controversial U.S. military invasion of Panama and convicted three years later on drug racketeering charges. Though his sentence ended in 2007 he remains in the same Miami prison while lawyers carry out his numerous appeals.
Although Noriega is the only official prisoner of war currently in US custody, his appeal sought an examination of the constitutionality of legal provisions passed by Congress to undercut appeals on behalf of terrorism suspects at the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp…
“It is incumbent upon us to provide what guidance we can on these issues now,” Thomas wrote in a 15-page dissent. “Whatever conclusion we reach, our opinion will help the political branches and the courts discharge their responsibilities over detainee cases, and will spare detainees and the government years of unnecessary litigation.”
Image- Miami Herald
Online Sources- BBC News, UPI, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Christian Science Monitor
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