Judge Won’t Yield Noriega Jurisdiction : Drug case: Efforts to have former dictator moved to foreign country are rejected.

A federal judge refused today to give up jurisdiction in the drug trafficking case against Manuel A. Noriega, rejecting defense efforts to have the fallen dictator moved to a neutral country.

“I don’t find that under the Geneva Convention I must divest myself of jurisdiction,” said U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler, the trial judge.

William Bryson, U.S. deputy solicitor general, had argued the government’s case that the judge does have jurisdiction.

“Yes, we have agreed to treat Gen. Noriega as a prisoner of war,” Bryson said. But, he said, the Geneva Convention clearly authorizes Noriega’s prosecution in a U.S. civilian court.

Defense attorney Frank Rubino strongly dissented, saying the government was trying to read the Geneva Convention to justify an illegal invasion and the detention of Noriega.

“Your honor is going to decide whether we are going to strictly observe the Geneva Convention, or whether we are going to push it aside a little bit so we can bring General Noriega to trial,” Rubino said.

Rubino said he was asking the judge not to dismiss the indictment but to acknowledge he had no jurisdiction over Noriega except to send him back to Panama or a willing third country. Rubino said the United States could then try “fair and square” to get him back by extradition.

The comments came during a status conference on the indictment. Both sides agree that the judge must also decide soon what procedures will be used to give the defendants classified documents they say are essential to the defense.

The hearing saw the first gathering in court of all six defendants brought here to face charges in the February, 1988, drug trafficking case: Noriega, Brian Alden Davidow, Luis del Cid, Luis Saldarriaga, Daniel Miranda and Eduardo Pardo.

An attorney for Davidow, 28, asked for a separate trial for his client. In the motion, defense attorney Richard Sharpstein said Noriega’s presence “is similar to an atomic bomb, producing fallout which would kill anyone tried with him.”