From Presidency to prison: A warning to all dictators in the world

Manuel Noriega (L) and Hun Xen (R)

From Presidency to prison

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Ayaz Ahmed Pirzada
Pakistan Observer

Gen Manuel Noriega the former dictator of Panama ousted by the American military in 1989, has been refused immunity plea by a French court that as head of a country he could not be prosecuted for any criminal case. This was the second occasion a court refused to entertain plea for immunity. Earlier a US court dismissed this request in 1998 when he was hustled into USA after his capture in Panama. A Miami Judge gave him 20 years prison for money laundering and drug trafficking. Known as inmate number 38699-079 Noriega completed his jail term in the US on September 9, 2007 but was not released as the French government had asked the US authorities for his extradition to Paris to face criminal charges. Gen Noriega 73 was extradited to France on April 28,2010 where a French Judge refusing immunity found him guilty of money laundering and handed down a jail term of 10 years.

If no other cases are brought against him which is unlikely, he would be released at the of 83. Once a charismatic personality and happy go lucky type Noriega looked frail but at 73 he still inspires enough anxiety for government of Panama and still has some followers who love him. But in Panama, he faces legal problems as he was convicted in absentia of embezzlement and corruption, and for ordering the killing of political opponents. Although he faces up to 60 years in prison for those charges, Panamanian law allows older convicts to serve prison time at home. There is a long list of heads of state who were refused immunity, arrested, tried and in some cases punished for the crimes they committed. On October 16, 1998, London police arrested Chilean dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet. They were acting on a Spanish warrant charging the former dictator with human rights crimes committed in Chile during his seventeen-year rule. The British courts rejected Pinochle’s claim that he was entitled to immunity and ruled that he could be extradited to Spain to stand trial. Only his deteriorating mental capacity revealed in medical report, saved him from prosecution He was released in March 2000 and he returned home to Chile. In March 2002 the Court of Appeals of Brussels ordered Scheduling of hearing to assess the relevance of the ICJ decision in the case of Ariel Sharon the then Prime Minister of Israel accused of slaughtering hundreds of refugees at Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.

Milosevic, ‘Butcher of the Balkans’ was tried by an International Criminal Tribunal for corruption, mass murders and crime against humanity .The trial after Miloševiæ’s death under suspicious circumstances. After the arrest and trial of Milosevic, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was arrested, tried and hanged in 2007.Liberian President Charles Taylor also sits in the dock in The Hague. Chad’s exiled former president, Hissène Habré, is to stand trial at a special court in Senegal while another corrupt and murderer of thousands of people, Khieu Samphan, the former president of the Khmer Rouge, is facing a U.N.-sponsored court in Cambodia for his part in “the killing fields” - the slaughter of his own people - nearly 30 years ago. Most recently, the International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued warrants for arrest of President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for allegations of genocide. The Sudanese president became the first sitting head of state on March 4,2009 to be charged with war crimes by the international criminal court in The Hague. Radovan Karadzic was arraigned thirteen years after the Srebrenica genocide, when Bosnian Serb forces rounded up more than 7,500 Muslim men and boys and slaughtered them in cold blood.

Of all these leaders who were indicted, tried and punished for their crimes Noriega is the only leader whose ordeal does not seem to be anywhere near the end . Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno a career soldier was the de facto leader and military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989. His biggest blunder perhaps was to join the recruits of the CIA He was initially a strong ally of the United States and according to statements made by former CIA Director Admiral Stan Field Turner in 1988; Noriega became a CIA “asset” in the early 1970s. Former President George. H. W .Bush during his tenure as Director of the CIA, had personally arranged annual payments to Noriega of $110,000. Noriega enhanced his position as de facto ruler in August 1983 by promoting himself to General .He was convinced that being a strongest man in Panama he would prolong his authority by becoming a CIA source and an ally to the U.S. Despite the canal treaties, he allowed the U.S. to set up listening posts in Panama, and acted as a diplomatic go-between with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

He aided the pro-American forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua by acting as a conduit for American money and weapons. However, Noriega insists that his policy during this period was essentially neutral, allowing the warring parties on both sides of the various conflicts free movement in Panama as long as they did not attempt to use Panama as a base of military operations. He rebuffed requests by Salvadorean rightist Roberto D’Aubuisson to restrict the movements of Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (leftist Salvadorian insurgent) leaders in Panama, and likewise rebuffed demands by American Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North that he provide military assistance to the Nicaraguan Contras. Noriega insists that his refusal to meet North’s demands was the actual basis for the U.S. campaign to oust him. Noriega was accused of amassing huge illegal money and used the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) as a means to launder his wealth ($20 million). His personal banker, Amjad Awan, a Pakistani senior manager at BCCI handled Noriega’s accounts. He was convicted of money laundering after a lengthy trial in Tampa, Fla.

Holding individuals accountable for involvement in international wrongdoings, corruption, and heinous crimes is a modern concept which has legitimately taken root during the last five decades. A case against Ariel Sharon in a European court illustrates substantive shifts in international customary law regarding questions of jurisdiction and immunity. With every passing year, the dominoes of impunity keep falling, first Europe, then the Middle East, then Africa. And they continue to fall every where. These days the world lawyers community is asking the question when another president will ever be charged for wrong doings, looting the resources of his nation and punished accordingly. A growing number of Pakistanis are voicing for making President Zardari as the next head of state to face accountability, at home or abroad. Their demand is based on the Supreme Court verdict directing the government to send a fresh request to the Swiss authorities to reopen cases of money laundering, kick backs, illegal income etc. But so far the decision is being frustrated by the government‘s defiance, showing scant respect for the judiciary.