Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, toppled by a US invasion and prosecuted for drug trafficking, will be released in September from the Florida prison where he has been held since 1990, US authorities and media reported. A court order will allow Noriega to leave the federal prison because of time already served and good behavior while behind bars, the Miami Herald newspaper reported.
"There is no turning back," Noriega's attorney, Frank Rubino, was quoted as saying. "The order is obligatory, and nobody can stop it. ... He has no intention of remaining here."
The US Federal Bureau of Prisons' website confirmed that Noriega, 70, was due for release on September 9.
The federal judge who sentenced the former general said it was time for Noriega to be released.
"I think, under the circumstances, he has served a sufficient sentence," said Senior US District Judge William Hoeveler, quoted by the newspaper.
Upon his release, Noriega may be promptly extradited to Panama or France, where charges are pending, the paper wrote, citing a former prosecutor who tried Noriega's case.
Noriega ruled Panama from 1983 to 1989, when he was ousted and captured by US military forces in an invasion ordered by former president George H.W. Bush.
Noriega had worked with the CIA for years but fell out of Washington's favor amid charges of narcotics trafficking and jeopardizing the neutrality of the Panama Canal.
The former general was sentenced in 1992 to 40 years in prison for drug trafficking and money laundering, a sentence that was later reduced to 30 years. In 2004, Noriega suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but his lawyer said his client was "in good health and he wants to go home."
