Manuel Noriega Off to France

Former Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega was extradited to France today.

He left his jail cell and boarded an Air France flight 695 at the Miami airport due to arrive to Paris’s Charles de Gaulle 2E terminal at 8:10 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Air France flight tracker.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the extradition order earlier on Monday.  Noriega’s lawyers were not told.

“I would have hoped, if an order was signed, that the State Department would have the courtesy to respond to his lawyers and tell them an order was signed,” said Frank Rubino, Noriega’s main criminal defense attorney.  He said he learned that his client was taking off from reporters.

The former Panamanian strongman, now in his 70s, will be facing money laundering charges in France where his French lawyers will argue head of state immunity from prosecution, as well as a statute of limitations that defined him as a prisoner of war in the United States.

Building where Noriega reportedly bought one of his luxury apartments in France /PHOTO AFP