Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 23, Number 15, April 5, 1996 Panama Report by CarlosWesley Noriega is denied a new trial of the United States," said Noriega, the FederalJudge William Hoeveler reaffirmsthe George Bush-era only official POW being held by the travesty ofjustice. United States. "As my attorney noted, this means that it is now permissible to bribe witnesses so that they can tes­ tify at trials, either by 'fuse or G en. Manuel Noriega told this re­ government's so-called 'dynamite dynamite.' " porter that Judge William Hoeveler's witness,' to testify, to what Hoeveler Noriega said the judge erred in de­ refusal on March 27 to grant him a new himself agreed to at Bilonick's sen­ nying him a new trial on the basis that trial was "unfortunate" and "contra­ tencing." the results would be the same. "What dictory." Noriega's attorneys had In June 1992, when he sentenced we see in this decision is a judge voic­ moved for a new trial based on newly Bilonick, Hoeveler had said: "I think ing the same arguments as the prosecu­ uncovered evidence showing that the that by anybody's standards he is one tors. We see a judge interpreting how a George Bush administration cut a deal of the more important witnesses the jury would think, and we see the same with the Cali cocaine cartel to procure governmentpresented in the trial of the judge judging the case. Thus, he is at the perjured testimony, "by silver or case." Hoeveler was echoing prosecu­ the same time the pitcher, the batter, lead," of former Panamanian diplomat tor Myles Malman: "The testimony of and the catcher." Ricardo Bilonick. In exchange, the Mr. Bilonick was probably the most In the documents submitted to U.S. government agreed to reduce the significantand critical element in prov­ Hoeveler, Noriega's lawyers noted 23-year sentence of convicted drug­ ing the Inair portion of the case." that if the "United States can contract trafficker Luis "Lucho" Santacruz So important was Bilonick's testi­ with criminal organizations for evi­ Londono, brother of Cali kingpin Julio mony to the government's otherwise dence, there will never be any way to Santacruz Londono. worthless case, according to defense ensure the reliability of the truth-seek­ At hearings in Hoeveler's court in lawyers, that, although he pled guilty ing function. Witness intimidation and March, witnesses testified that they to smuggling 22 tons of cocaine, bribery will become rampant." More had given Bilonick a total of$I.25 mil­ which should have earned him up to damaging, they argued, "is the fact that lion from the Cali Cartel for his testi­ 60 years behind bars, Hoeveler gave the United States tried to hide its part­ mony against Noriega. In violation of him a sentence that put him back on nership with the cartel from the jury." due process, the defense was never the streets in three years. They cited Kyles v. Whitley, a 1995 told about the deal, which was also Former President Jimmy Carter U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which kept secret from the jury. wrote Hoeveler at the time, praising held that "the question is not whether In his March 27 ruling, Hoeveler Bilonick's honesty and supporting the the defendant would more likely than admitted the bribe allegations were prosecution's request for leniency. So not have received a different result "troubling." But, he sided with the did former Assistant Secretary of State with the evidence, but whether in its prosecution's arguments that even if and Henry Kissinger's personal law­ absence he received a fair trial, under­ Bilonick had been bribed, the defense yer William D. Rogers, as did former stood as a trial resulting in a verdict had failed to prove that "a new trial U.S. Ambassador to Panama Ambler worthy of confidence." By this crite­ would produce a different result" than Moss. Bilonick and his family were ria, Noriega clearly would seem to be that in 1992, when Hoeveler sentenced given permanent U.S. visas, and he entitled to a new trial. Noriega to 40 years in jail, on trumped­ was allowed to keep at least $4 million Considered an "intelligence com­ up drug-trafficking charges. Hoeveler in drug money-on top of the $1.25 munity" judge, Hoeveler was an active also sided with the prosecutors in million bribe from the cartel to secure player in Bush's efforts to oust No­ claiming that Bilonick's testimony his testimony. riega. He reportedly prefers a higher "was not the substance of the govern­ Hoeveler also helped prosecutors court, such as the Eleventh Circuit, ment's case." keep their deal with the Cali Cartel, which is reviewing the case on appeal, This contradicts "what Hoeveler lopping nine years off Lucho Santa­ to deal with what he calls the "political said and did before," Noriega told me cruz's sentence. overtones" of the case, a euphemism by phone from his jail cell. "From re­ "By letting this bribery stand, for the Bush-era criminal complicity ducing the sentence of Santacruz, be­ Judge Hoeveler has gone counter to all with drug-runners all across Ibero­ cause of his role in getting Bilonick, the the precepts set down in the law books America. 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