Jury selection got under way Thursday in Manuel Noriega's drug trafficking trial after lawyers made a last-minute attempt to derail it with allegations that his former attorney - a secret U.S. government informant - sold him out.
The first dozen of about 170 members of the first group of potential jurors entered the courtroom at 10:30 a.m. for the start of a trial that is expected to take months.The issue of the former lawyer - which U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler did not immediately rule on - arose Wednesday in a hearing on final pretrial motions.
The former Panamanian dictator, accused of raking in millions for helping drug smugglers, was brought to the United States after the U.S. invasion in 1989.
Never has the U.S. government gone to such lengths to prosecute a foreign head of state - and a former ally. The defense vows to put the government on trial, documenting its 20-year support of Noriega's activities and revealing the sordid secrets of U.S. drug policy.
Federal prosecutors don't dispute that former Noriega lawyer Raymond Takiff was a U.S. Justice Department informant in an unrelated case. However, they say it's irrelevant because as a foreigner Noriega had no constitutional rights.
Noriega's defense on Wednesday asked to question Takiff. Hoeveler did not say when he would rule on the request.
Defense lawyer Frank Rubino said Takiff never told Noriega or other defense attorneys he was a secret agent. It was Takiff who advised Noriega not to accept aState Department deal to drop the charges in October 1989, and who advised him to surrender when U.S. troops invaded Panama two months later, Rubino said.
"Had General Noriega not followed Mr. Takiff's advice, there is a real possibility that this indictment would have been dismissed and General Noriega would not be here today," Rubino said Wednesday.
As soon as Noriega surrendered, Takiff resigned from the case, blaming ill health.
Takiff, snared for tax evasion, has worked since August 1989 for federal prosecutors in a judicial corruption case as part of a plea bargain.
Takiff said his health problems were genuine, including two heart attacks, and denied ever telling Noriega to surrender.
"General Noriega's surrender was something well beyond my advice," Takiff told The Miami Herald late Wednesday. "That was a decision he made on his own."
Meanwhile, Hoeveler said he hoped to seat a 12-member jury and six alternates in a few days.
Rubino said getting an impartial jury would be difficult. A review of 1,200 questionnaires sent to potential jurors showed more than 60 percent thought "they should just hang" Noriega, he said.