Soviet Official Questions U.S. Right to Try Noriega

A Soviet spokesman today questioned whether the United States has the right to put Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega on trial and said that even a conviction on drug charges would not justify the U.S. invasion of Panama.

“No state has the right to take the law into its own hands,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said. “That’s basically lynch law.”

Noriega, the former military leader of Panama, surrendered to American authorities in Panama City on Wednesday night and was taken to the United States, where he faces federal drug-trafficking charges.

Speaking at a news conference, Gerasimov questioned whether an American court has the right to try Noriega and said the United States has already committed several violations of international law by invading Panama on Dec. 20 and removing the ousted dictator for trial.

The trial will involve “a violation of the rights of the government of Panama, a violation of the principles of nonintervention of the charter of the United Nations,” Gerasimov said.

Gerasimov said that “from the outside,” the American capture of Noriega looked like government vengeance against a former CIA agent who got away.

“We think that Gen. Noriega used to be a CIA agent,” Gerasimov said. “And as your President Roosevelt said about (the late Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio) Somoza, he’s an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B. So this particular S.O.B. was your S.O.B. and then he went astray and now you want to capture him.”

Gerasimov also said it appears that the real issue at stake in the American invasion was not catching an alleged drug kingpin but trying to hold onto the Panama Canal, which is due to revert to Panamanian control in the year 2000.

He added that even if Noriega is found guilty of drug trafficking, armed intervention is still “not how things should be done. That’s not how the struggle with drug business should be waged.”

Soviet media have regularly given factual reports on the invasion of Panama and attempts to capture Noriega.