Noriega Ex-Lawyer Denies He Counseled Surrender

A one-time lawyer for Gen. Manuel A. Noriega, who was also a secret federal informant, denied in federal court here Friday that he ever advised the former Panamanian leader to surrender to U.S. invasion forces.

Nor, said Miami attorney Raymond Takiff, did he ever provide prosecutors with any information about the strategy Noriega might use to defend himself against the drug and racketeering charges for which he is now on trial.

But Takiff did admit that, in a Jan. 3, 1990, telephone call to the Vatican Embassy in Panama City, where Noriega had taken refuge, he may have suggested to the papal envoy that only U.S. security forces could save Noriega from an angry mob of Panamanians that had surrounded the compound. “I was concerned for Gen. Noriega’s life,” Takiff said.

The testimony of Takiff was requested by Noriega’s defense attorneys, who have alleged that Takiff compromised Noriega’s right to a fair trial by not telling Noriega or other members of the defense team that he had become a government informant in a Miami judicial corruption investigation.

Takiff, under investigation for years for income tax irregularities, agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a sting operation that this week resulted in the indictment of three sitting and one former county judge on charges of accepting bribes. Takiff offered large sums of cash to the judges in return for favors granted to fictitious drug dealers.

Takiff resigned from Noriega’s defense team on the same day that he called the Vatican Embassy, about three months after making a deal with prosecutors in the other case.

The unusual inquiry into Takiff’s role came three weeks into Noriega’s trial on charges that he allowed Panama to become a haven for drug trafficking. The jury was not present, and, as if to underscore the relative informality of Friday’s proceedings, Noriega wore a white satin Panamanian Defense Forces jacket over his military uniform.

But the inquiry does raise troubling questions about Takiff’s dual role that could lead to a motion for dismissal of the charges against Noriega.

During the inquiry, which lasted almost two hours, Takiff disclosed that in May, 1988, just three months after the U.S. attorney in Miami brought the drug charges against Noriega, U.S. prosecutors offered to drop charges.

“The resolution (of that meeting) was that the indictments were going to be dismissed,” Takiff said. “There was later a change in position by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

The offer was rescinded in October, 1989, Takiff said.

U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler asked him why.

Takiff said he could not tell.