Noriega Challenges U.S. Right to Try Him on Drug Charges : Arraignment: Federal judge in Miami enters ‘not guilty’ plea for the deposed Panamanian dictator. A year of pretrial maneuvering by his defense team is expected.

Nearly two years after he challenged the United States to bring him to justice on drug charges, Manuel A. Noriega stood before a federal judge in a heavily guarded Miami courtroom Thursday, a defendant in the grasp of the U.S. legal system that he had scorned for so long.

The deposed Panamanian dictator declared through his lawyers, on his first day in the United States, that the government has no legal jurisdiction to try him on drug-trafficking charges here.

But U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler entered a plea of “not guilty” for Noriega at the arraignment and ordered that preparations begin for his trial on the charges, which were handed down by a federal grand jury in February, 1988.

The former leader, who wore a freshly starched khaki Panamanian military uniform, was remanded to the custody of U.S. marshals for what could be a year of pretrial maneuverings by his legal defense team.

Noriega had reached the United States in predawn darkness after a 5 1/4-hour flight from Panama City aboard a U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo airplane. During the trip, he was placed in handcuffs--at least temporarily--and was read, in Spanish, his constitutional rights to a lawyer and to remain silent.

His surrender Wednesday evening as he walked out the gate of the Vatican embassy, where he had taken refuge on Christmas Eve, ended a nearly two-year campaign by two U.S. administrations to remove him from power and bring him to the United States to face prosecution.

Accompanied by agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Noriega landed early Thursday at Homestead Air Force Base, 25 miles south of Miami, and was believed to have been taken directly to the federal courthouse here.

A senior Bush Administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Noriega’s decision to surrender may have been clinched by word that his sanctuary “would expire” at noon Thursday. The official speculated that, faced with a growing crowd of angry Panamanians outside the embassy, Noriega may have opted for the protection offered by U.S. custody.

Noriega’s arraignment began what is certain to be a drawn-out legal affair. It is uncertain whether the Adminstration can back up months of tough talk about Noriega’s role in drug smuggling with a successful prosecution through uncharted legal principles.

First, there is the knotty issue of arresting a former government leader beyond U.S. borders.

Also, Noriega’s lawyers are expected to seek classified U.S. documents dealing with his acknowledged past cooperation with the CIA and Drug Enforcement Administration. They also are likely to argue that he cannot receive a fair trial because of adverse publicity. Such issues could take months to resolve.

Wears Gold Stars

While marshals with binoculars scanned the downtown area from atop the courthouse, Noriega was brought by private elevator to the crowded ninth-floor courtroom from a basement jail cell. On the shoulders of his khaki shirt he wore the gold stars of a general--his rank as former chief of the Panama Defense Forces.

Using earphones to hear the judge’s questions translated into Spanish by a court interpreter, Noriega spoke little except to indicate three times that he understood the charges but would not enter a plea.

“My attorney has explained everything,” Noriega responded when Hoeveler asked him why he was remaining mute. He appeared calm but subdued throughout the 25-minute proceeding.

Defense attorney Frank Rubino took the hearing by surprise by declaring at the outset that his client “refuses to submit to the jurisdiction of this court.”

“He is a political prisoner brought to this country illegally,” Rubino continued, adding that Noriega’s indictment on drug charges in Miami and Tampa, Fla., in 1988 was “politically motivated” and that the Dec. 20 invasion of Panama by U.S. forces was illegal.

As a head of state, Noriega had immunity from criminal charges by U.S. grand juries, Rubino told Hoeveler.

U.S. officials maintain that Noriega willingly surrendered. But his attorney argued that Noriega was coerced, saying that he had been warned that protection would be withdrawn as crowds surrounded the Vatican embassy. Noriega surrendered to avoid further bloodshed, Rubino told the court.

But U.S. Atty. Dexter Lehtinen of Miami countered that the immunity question was settled long ago and that Noriega’s surrender to U.S. forces Wednesday brought him legally into custody.

Rejected Claims

Lehtinen referred to the fact that a year ago, Hoeveler rejected defense claims that the United States had no jurisdiction over Noriega as a head of state. The judge said then that the State Department had not recognized the general’s political legitimacy.

Speaking privately, some U.S. officials said Noriega is likely to be kept for extended periods of time, pending more pretrial hearings, in a cell at the courthouse, a modern structure with many amenities. In previous cases involving accused narcotics traffickers, defense lawyers have protested when their clients were moved for security reasons to federal prisons some distance away.

Rubino did not seek Noriega’s release on bond because of his argument that the court does not have jurisdiction over Noriega. It is doubtful that Hoeveler would have granted bail, anyway.

One day after the quiet denouement of the nearly two-year drama that began with the indictments, the Bush Administration’s celebrations were muted.

President Bush kept to an apparently low-key schedule, making no public appearances and no public comments about Noriega on Thursday. White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Bush spoke briefly by telephone with Pope John Paul II, to thank the pontiff for the Vatican’s help in persuading Noriega to surrender.

“The President is gratified the operation has been completed in such a successful fashion,” Fitzwater said.

A senior White House official said the reaction within the White House to Noriega’s decision to leave the protection of the Vatican embassy generally was subdued.

“Part of the reason is the attitude has been that ultimately he would have to come out” of the embassy to which he had fled, the official said. “I don’t think there is a great deal of surprise or euphoria.”

But the low-key approach was also intentional. It reflected the Administration’s sensitivity to the need to avoid making statements that could be considered prejudicial in a court of law and that could thus provide Noriega’s defense attorneys with grounds to argue that government officials’ public comments make it impossible to find an impartial jury.

The Administration, which aggressively denounced Noriega in earlier days as a “narco-terrorist,” sharply toned down its rhetoric to language that would be acceptable in a courtroom.

Before Bush announced Noriega’s surrender, White House lawyers took the unusual step of reviewing every word in the brief statement that the President delivered to a national television audience Wednesday evening. They were making sure that it included no remarks that could risk damaging the impartiality of a jury.

Steven Kollin, Rubino’s co-counsel representing Noriega, said before the court appearance that “the unparalleled pretrial publicity in this case makes it almost impossible, we believe, to find 12 jurors that do not have a predisposition to this matter.”

He also said that secret documents spelling out his client’s ties to the CIA “are necessary to defend our client”--raising the shadow of conflict with the Justice Department over disclosing government secrets.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said, however: “We’re satisfied that there’s no bar whatsoever to going forward with the charges, using the evidence that we have, to sustain the charges contained in the indictment. We’re not worried about anything that may be raised by way of defense.”

In the Miami indictment, Noriega is accused of accepting $4.6 million in bribes from Colombian drug cartels to aid and protect their smuggling and processing--charges that could carry 145 years in prison and $1.1 million in fines. A separate indictment in Tampa accuses him of marijuana trafficking; he is expected to be tried later on those charges.

Noriega, meanwhile, was described by Archbishop Marcos G. McGrath of Panama as having been “downcast and a bit moody” and having “kept pretty much to himself” during his stay in the Vatican embassy in Panama City.

By landing on the doorstep of the Vatican on Dec. 24, Noriega threw the United States, the new Panamanian government and the Pope into what Bush called a three-way “conundrum.”

The matter came to a head, according to a senior Bush Administration official, when the papal nuncio, Archbishop Jose Sebastian Laboa, decided that Noriega’s asylum would expire by noon Thursday.

When he left the embassy, Noriega asked for a memento and left a letter to the Pope, Navarro said. The memento chosen was said to be a Bible, and the letter’s contents are not known. Laboa was forwarding the sealed letter by diplomatic pouch to the Vatican.

Jackson reported from Miami and Gerstenzang from Washington. Times staff writer William D. Montalbano in Rome also contributed to this report.

CHARGES AGAINST NORIEGA

Gen. Manuel A. Noriega and 12 others were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in February, 1988, on 12 counts of taking part in a criminal enterprise in violation of the U.S. racketeering and drug laws. If convicted, Noriega faces a maximum 145-year prison term and more than $1 million in fines. He is specifically accused of:

Accepting a $4.6-million bribe from Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel to protect shipments of cocaine, launder money, supply drug laboratories and shield drug traffickers from the law.

Allowing smugglers to use Panama as a way station for U.S.-bound cocaine.

Utilizing his official positions both before and after he took power in 1983 to provide protection for international narcotics traffickers.

Arranging for the shipment of cocaine-processing chemicals, including those seized by Panamanian police.

Laundering cartel narcotics proceeds in Panamanian banks.

Allowing cartel leaders to shift operations to Panama to escape a crackdown in Colombia after the assassination of that country’s anti-drug minister of justice.

Traveling to Havana so Cuban President Fidel Castro could mediate a dispute with the Medellin cartel after Panamanian troops seized a drug laboratory that Noriega had been paid to protect.

A federal grand jury in Tampa, also in February, 1988, indicted Noriega on three counts of marijuana trafficking. That indictment accuses him of attempting to import more than 1.4 million pounds of marijuana into the United States and accepting a $1-million bribe from drug dealers for allowing them to smuggle 400,000 pounds of marijuana and launder more than $100 million in Panama.

The Justice Department has said prosecutors plan to prosecute Noriega first on the more serious Miami charges and then bring him to trial on the Tampa indictment.

Source: Times Wire Services