Panama: Noriega to Be Tried in Absentia for Spadafora Murder Deborah Tyroler

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3-5-1993 Panama: Noriega To Be Tried In Absentia For Spadafora Murder Deborah Tyroler

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Recommended Citation Tyroler, Deborah. "Panama: Noriega To Be Tried In Absentia For Spadafora Murder." (1993). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ noticen/8066

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in NotiCen by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 057938 ISSN: 1089-1560 Panama: Noriega To Be Tried In Absentia For Spadafora Murder by Deborah Tyroler Category/Department: General Published: Friday, March 5, 1993

The Panamanian courts have decided to try deposed leader Gen. Manuel Noriega and nine of his close associates in absentia in connection with the 1985 assassination of Hugo Spadafora. Trial proceedings, which will be held in the northern province of Chiriqui, are scheduled to begin on July 6. Spadafora, who served as deputy health minister during the government of Gen. Omar Torrijos, was one of Noriega's first major political adversaries. Spadafora also collaborated with the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in its efforts to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua. He later went on to become an outspoken critic of the Sandinista government, and eventually collaborated with the US-backed contras. Spadafora's decapitated corpse was found in September 1985 in Chiriqui, near the border with Costa Rica. Noriega is accused of being the intellectual author of the crime. Investigations into the Spadafora killing were reopened in the wake of the 1989 US military invasion which toppled the Noriega regime. During its first session of 1990, the Legislative Assembly named a special prosecutor, Carlos Herrera, to oversee investigations into the crime. Herrera has repeatedly asserted that sufficient evidence has been gathered to secure a conviction against those implicated in the killing. In late 1992, Noriega, currently serving a 40 year prison term in the US on a conviction related to drug trafficking, challenged the Panamanian government to extradite him so he could stand trial in the Spadafora case. Noriega's attorney in Panama, Ramiro Fonseca, said he is pleased the case is finally coming to trial, claiming his client has extensive proof of his innocence. (Sources: Agence France-Presse, 03/02/92; Agencia Centroamericana de Noticias-Spanish news service EFE, 03/03/93)

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