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September 7, 2007 New Noriega appeal could delay extradition for months Seeking to delay his extradition to France, former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega Friday filed yet another court challenge in US federal court - a move that could postpone his departure for weeks or months, an expert said. The appeal was filed in Miami inmediately after a federal judge refused to rule on another legal manoeuvre also aimed at delaying the extradition. In his opinion, senior US district judge William Hoeveler wrote that his court had no jurisdiction over a petition filed earlier in the week that alleged US authorities were trying to spirit Noriega out of the country before his scheduled release from jail on Sunday. Noriega's lawyers, Frank Rubino and Jon May of Miami, immediately appealed Hoeveler's ruling in an electronic filing, according to a copy posted on an internet digital court website. An expert in extradition law, Douglas McNabb, told dpa that the appeal could mean considerable delay in extraditing the 69-year-old man. "The defense still has many possibilities, and I think they will go until the end. There are still many legal steps in this case, which could take several weeks, if not months, to resolve," said McNabb. The US could keep Noriega in jail during the process, he said. The State Department, which must sign Noriegas final extradition, confirmed it will not act until all legal matters are settled. "The State Department does not normally and will not in this case act on the certificate of extraditability until those legal issues are resolved. And so at this point where we are, (it) is waiting to see how that legal process plays out", said deputy spokesman Tom Casey. Noriega, the former Panamanian leader, has been jailed for 17 years in the United States on drug-dealing convictions. Panama has also requested his extradition, but US courts have ruled against that move, tipping instead to the French request. Two US judges have already allowed Noriega's extradition to France to go forward. Noriega wanted to be extradited to Panama, where legal punishment also awaits him for human rights abuses. A French court convicted Noriega in absentia in 1999 on money laundering charges and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Noriega was captured during the 1989 US invasion of Panama and convicted in 1992 of smuggling drugs through Panama into the United States. In the court challenges, Rubino and May have argued that Noriega is protected against the French extradition as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention. Hoeveler answered the petition, quoting a US State Department lawyer, Clifton Johnson, as saying: "France does indeed intend to afford (defendant) all the same rights that he was afforded during his incarcertion in the United States." Hoeveler also pointed out that after World War II, the United States helped German POWs held in France by "providing food and clothing" so that "the German POWs would have their needs met," in compliance with humane standards for POWs. Both Noriega's lawyers and the US Attorneys in the case refused to comment on Hoeveler's ruling. | |