Difficult Task of Selecting Noriega Case Jurors Begins : Trial: Both sides predict uphill struggle to find impartial panel. Former Panama dictator faces drug, racketeering charges.

Jury selection began Thursday for former Panamanian dictator Manuel A. Noriega, with one of the first potential jurors denouncing him as a human rights violator.

The juror’s statement demonstrated the difficulties faced by both sides in finding an impartial jury as 96 candidates filed into the ornate central courtroom in the federal courthouse to begin Noriega’s drug and racketeering trial.

The defense, after reviewing 1,200 questionnaires sent out by the court, had predicted an uphill battle to seat an impartial jury. One juror illustrated that difficulty when the judge asked if anyone knew Noriega.

“I know him as a violator of human rights,” said Lesbia Reyna, standing up and looking directly at Noriega. But she acknowledged that she did not know him personally.

Her husband, Dr. Roberto Reyna, was director of the Panamanian Human Rights Committee in Miami, he said later.

“I was very much involved in denouncing Mr. Noriega, so we were very surprised when she was called,” Reyna said. “I guess it was just coincidence.”

Mrs. Reyna was one of more than 30 Latinos on the 96-member panel from which the court will try to select a jury of 12, along with six alternates.

The questionnaire asked jurors such questions as whether they had ever heard of Noriega, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Oliver L. North and other figures whose names will be raised at the trial. They also asked what television programs they watch, whether they can fly a plane and whether they ever visited Panama.

About a fourth of the group are black, and the rest are non-Latin white. Slightly more than half are women.

U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler opened the selection process with a lecture, reminding jurors of the ancient origins of the jury trial and warning them to leave their prejudices behind.

“It is essential we select in this county--which I firmly believe we can do--a qualified jury in this case,” he said.

Noriega, wearing four-star epaulets on each shoulder of his brown, short-sleeved military uniform, sat at the defense table, talking with his lawyers and poring over the juror list.

Behind him in the first row of the gallery sat his wife, Felicidad, and his three daughters, who were given special visas for the trial.

The judge has said he hopes to seat a jury in a few days. But the defense said a review of 1,200 questionnaires sent to potential jurors did not bode well for seating an impartial jury.

Asked what they thought of Noriega, more than 60% were of the view “they should just hang him,” defense attorney Frank Rubino said.

Prosecutors also agreed that jury selection might be difficult.

The questionnaires issue “only makes me think we’re going to have even more difficulty than I thought,” said lead prosecutor Michael P. Sullivan.

Noriega is charged with turning Panama into a way station for Colombia’s Medellin cartel to process and ship drugs to the United States. He allegedly took at least $10 million in bribes to protect cartel operations as they shipped tons of cocaine by boat and plane.

Defense lawyers insist that many of Noriega’s efforts were part of joint--but secret--U.S.-Panama operations approved by the CIA and other agencies. Some drug flights, they have implied, were part of North’s illegal supply operation to aid the Contras who were fighting Nicaragua’s leftist government in the mid-1980s.

Noriega could be sentenced to 140 years in prison if convicted on all 10 counts he is facing.

He had been confined to the Metropolitan Correctional Center since shortly after his capture but is now expected to stay in a courthouse basement cell throughout the trial, which could last from three to six months.

Key Figures in Noriega Trial

DEFENDANT

* Manuel A. Noriega, 53: He rose through Panamanian military ranks to become the intelligence chief for strongman Omar Torrijos in the 1970s. In 1983, after Torrijos’ death, he maneuvered himself into power over rivals. The indictment says in the early and mid-1980s, he conspired to turn Panama into a way station for Colombia’s Medellin cartel to manufacture, ship and distribute cocaine by air and sea, and helped launder drug profits. Noriega faces a maximum 145 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

DEFENDANTS WHO PLEADED GUILTY AND MAY TESTIFY

* Ricardo Bilonick: Panama’s “ambassador-at-large” under Torrijos. Prosecutors say he can tie Noriega and the cartel together at the highest levels. He pleaded guilty Aug. 28, promising to testify against Noriega.

* Luis Del Cid: As Noriega’s military aide, he allegedly carried drug payoffs from star witness Floyd Carlton to Noriega and traveled with him to Cuba when Fidel Castro allegedly negotiated a truce between the cartel and Noriega after the bust of the “Tranquilandia” lab in Panama.

* Daniel Miranda: A Panamanian pilot linked to flying drug cash from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Panama. A minor character in the case, he pleaded guilty and will testify for the government.

* Brian Davidow: A Miami real estate agent, he was tried separately and convicted of attempting to ship cocaine aboard the luxury yacht Krill in 1986 under Noriega’s protection. He has agreed to testify in exchange for a shorter sentence.

OTHER WITNESSES

* Floyd Carlton: The government’s star witness; charges in the indictment spring largely from his testimony. A Panamanian drug pilot with close ties to Noriega who allegedly acted as a go-between with the Medellin cartel.

* Amjad Awan: Noriega’s personal banker at the scandal-plagued Bank of Credit & Commerce International’s Miami office, he was convicted of money-laundering in Tampa and is reportedly cooperating with prosecutors. He could help trace Noriega’s movement of cash around the world.

THE LEAD PROSECUTOR

* Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael P. Sullivan, 44: A federal prosecutor since 1972 and now the Miami office’s top trial attorney, handling major drug cases. He was handed the case when the Panama invasion began because the attorney who had brought the indictment left the office.

THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY

* Frank Rubino, 45: A former Secret Service agent and now busy Miami drug attorney. He took part in the New York Pizza Connection case. One of his cases led to U.S. Customs officers being banned from making arrests more than 12 miles offshore.

THE JUDGE

* U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler, 69: Now on semi-retired status, was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977. He has been rated by attorneys as one of best judges in the Southern Florida district.

Source: Associated Press