On Sunday evening, a commercial airliner landed here with much less fanfare, carrying him back. After a flight of more than 15 hours from Paris, where he had served additional time for money laundering, Noriega arrived at El Renacer Prison, a former U.S. facility, to complete a 20-year sentence for three convictions stemming from several deaths and await possible further judgment in Panama’s courts."
As the plane descended, a doctor checked Noriega, 77, who appeared to react to seeing the capital city from the air for the first time in years, a correspondent on the plane said. Noriega was kept from public view after landing at 6:08 p.m. aboard Iberia Airlines Flight 6345. A photo released by the Panamanian government showed him at the prison in a wheelchair, with a thin smile and wearing a dark suit, a red tie and a dark windbreaker slung partly over him.
Later, prison officials, responding to rumors that Noriega was not really in Panama, wheeled him to a doorway and Noriega, now in a red long-sleeve shirt and white sweatpants, gestured to reporters kept far away. The prison director, Angel Calderon, said Noriega was declining interviews and close-up pictures.
