MIAMI, May 20 (Reuters) - Lawyers for former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega have filed a long-awaited appeal against his extradition to face money laundering charges in France. Florida attorney Jon May said the appeal was filed on Monday in a brief sent to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. May and co-counsel Frank Rubino have sought to block Noriega's extradition on grounds that the French government would not respect a ruling from Noriega's 1992 U.S. drug trafficking trial giving him "prisoner of war" status and special protections under the Geneva Conventions. They also argue that because of his POW status, Noriega should have been repatriated to Panama upon completion of his U.S. prison sentence in September. There have been four rulings in federal court in Miami clearing the way for Noriega's extradition since August, however. Noriega, who is in his 70s, has remained in a Miami-area prison pending completion of his appeal against transfer to France, where he has been convicted in absentia of using illegal drug profits to buy three luxury apartments. The army general and one-time CIA informant was captured in January 1990 after the U.S. invasion of Panama a month earlier. He was convicted in U.S. District Court in Miami in 1992 on drug trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy charges. (Reporting by Tom Brown; editing by Michael Christie and Mohammad Zargham)
Riot police clash with Panamanians over food prices in Panama City, May 9, 2008. If food prices continue to rise by double-digit percentages and wages remain stagnant, over 30 million more ...
