JUAN ZAMORANO
Associated Press
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) — Panama authorities say imprisoned former dictator Manuel Noriega has been taken to a Panama City hospital for tests.
A prisons official did not offer The Associated Press details on what tests the 80-year-old former military strongman was undergoing Tuesday. The official was not authorized to speak on the record.
Noriega has been hospitalized several times — for hypertension, flu and bronchitis — since being repatriated from France in December 2011.
Toppled in a 1989 U.S. invasion, Noriega served a 17-year drug trafficking sentence in the United States. France later convicted him of money laundering.
In Panama, Noriega is serving a 60-year sentence for murder, embezzlement and corruption. His family says he should be released. Doctors hired by relatives say he has a benign brain tumor and heart trouble.
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