Lawyer Files for Dismissal of Noriega Case : Drug war: An attorney, citing taped phone calls, says the deposed Panamanian dictator can’t get a fair trial.

A lawyer for Manuel Noriega, saying it might be one of his last acts in the Noriega case, filed a motion today to dismiss the charges against the deposed Panamanian dictator, citing in part disputed tapes of Noriega telephone conversations with counsel.

Frank Rubino accused the government of a conspiracy to deny Noriega’s rights to a fair trial and effective legal counsel.

The motion accuses the government of misconduct by taping Noriega’s prison phone calls with his attorneys. Cable News Network reported last week that it had obtained tapes of such calls.

CNN is demanding that the FBI return a box of recordings and papers related to the government’s taping of Noriega’s jailhouse phone calls. The material was taken from a hotel room where a CNN reporter stayed.

Both an FBI official and CNN President Tom Johnson said today they didn’t know if the recordings were audio tapes or videotapes, or if they were the phone calls between Noriega and his lawyers that are at the center of a legal battle before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We just know that there were notes, work papers and tapes” related to CNN’s coverage of the Noriega story, Johnson said. “But in the process of working in an operation like this, you could have all sorts of tapes, including (taped) air checks.”

The box of material was given to the FBI on Thursday by security guards at the hotel. CNN claimed the box was improperly removed from the reporter’s room and that the FBI obtained it without a warrant.

William Hinshaw, head of the FBI bureau in Atlanta, said today that after a Thursday night meeting with CNN officials, he agreed to seal the box and not take inventory of its contents until the Justice Department orders him to do so.

Noriega’s private legal team also was in court today for a hearing on whether he should be appointed a government-paid defense attorney.

Rubino had claimed the U.S. government has sabotaged its work by freezing Noriega’s assets, leaving no money for legal fees.

U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler on Tuesday set a deadline of today for Noriega’s lawyers and the prosecution to work out a payment plan. Otherwise, he said, he will declare Noriega indigent and appoint an attorney on the U.S. payroll.

If declared indigent, Noriega would be allowed two attorneys paid a maximum of $75 an hour and investigative expenses of a few thousand dollars.

By contrast, the Justice Department has 30 lawyers on the case and is prepared to spend up to $30 million to prosecute Noriega on charges of accepting $4.6 million in bribes from Colombian cocaine smugglers, Rubino said.