LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Manuel Noriega: France
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Lawyers for former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega have asked a U.S. judge to block his possible extradition to France to face money-laundering charges. In Miami, VOA's Brian Wagner reports that Noreiga is seeking to return to Panama when he is paroled from a U.S. prison in September.
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The legal troubles of Panama's former military leader Manuel Noriega are likely to continue when he is released from a U.S. prison on September 9, after serving 17 years of a drug sentence. The governments in both France and Panama are seeking the custody of Noriega to answer for crimes he allegedly committed while he was in power.
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Manuel Noriega is seen in 1989. Noriega, 73, remained in his Miami jail cell Sunday, the day of his previously scheduled release, as his lawyers appealed his extradition to France on charges of money laundering.
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Former Panamanian military strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega talks to reporters in Panama City, in this Nov. 8, 1989 file photo. The former dictator failed again Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2008, to persuade a federal judge in Miami to block France from extraditing him to face money-laundering charges. France wants Noriega to face charges of laundering more than $3 million in drug profits through French banks and purchases that include luxurious apartments in Paris.
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Panamanians, meanwhile, are split on whether Noriega should be imprisoned in their country. A poll in July before the U.S. announced plans to try to extradite him to France found 47 percent want him imprisoned in Panama and 44 percent want him sent to a third country. The poll of 1,218 people conducted by Dichter & Neira Latin Research Network for La Prensa newspaper had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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Noriega has already been sentenced to ten years imprisonment in France in absentia on money laundering charges. He is charged with depositing $ 3.5 million in cocaine trafficking profits in French banks. France will accord him a new trial after he is extradited to the country.
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