$1.6 Million of Noriega’s Bank Funds Unfrozen

Austrian courts have unfrozen a $1.6-million bank account belonging to Manuel A. Noriega, and the money will go toward defending him against drug smuggling charges, the U.S. government said Friday.

The fallen Panamanian dictator’s lead defense attorney, Frank Rubino, faced a Monday deadline to agree to government terms of his payment or withdraw from the case.

Rubino was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment. His co-counsel, Jon May, said the money would go to pay the legal fees of several lawyers who worked with the defense team.

“This makes it much more likely that we are going to stay in,” May said.

“We will have to wait until Monday to see whether this changes the situation as far as Mr. Rubino is concerned,” U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler said.

But May said unfreezing the money doesn’t solve all of the defense’s financial problems. He said the money “doesn’t represent enough money to pay attorneys’ fees for this year.”

Rubino had announced he would withdraw from the case unless the government found a way to unfreeze some of the $20 million tied up in European bank accounts.

Rubino had complained that government delays in releasing the money had hampered his ability to gather evidence for the defense.

Noriega has been held at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center south of Miami for more than a year on charges he accepted $4.6 million from Colombia’s Medellin cocaine cartel to protect U.S.-bound drug shipments.