**Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is being extradited to France after serving a 17-year sentence in the US for drug trafficking, US officials say.**Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the warrant allowing the extradition to go ahead, they said.
French officials later confirmed that the extradition was under way.
France convicted Noriega in his absence in 1999 for laundering money through French banks, though it says he will be granted a new trial.
He had wanted to be sent back to Panama after finishing his 17-year jail sentence, but in April a US court ruled he could be extradited to France.
US media aired video images on Monday that they said showed Noriega, 72, being led from a van into Miami airport.
A US court convicted Noriega of laundering illicit drugs money in 1990 and he was sentenced to 30 years, later reduced to 17 years for good behaviour.
France convicted him in his absence in 1999 for laundering money through French banks, though it says he will be granted a new trial.
Noriega’s lawyers had argued that international law required he be returned to Panama.
He is deemed to be a prisoner of war in the US because he was seized when US troops invaded Panama in 1989.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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