Castro testimony sought
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See the article in its original context from September 1991.
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Prosecutors and defence attorneys have previously raised the possibility of the Cuban president's testimony at Noriega's trial, but did not provide details.
"It's definitely in the works," Sam Burstyn, attorney for former Noriega military aide Luis del Cid, told reporters.
Burstyn's client was on the stand Thursday tracing Noriega's rise to power. But the trial was abruptly adjourned until Monday after prosecutor Myles Malman's father suffered an apparent heart attack.
The prosecution says del Cid accompanied Noriega to a 1984 meeting in which Castro mediated a dispute between Noriega and Colombia's Medellin drug cartel.
Outside court, Burstyn confirmed his client was present at that meeting, and said prosecutors and defence attorneys were near a deal to travel to Cuba to obtain Castro's sworn statement on videotape.
U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Diane Cossin said she could not comment on any potential witnesses.
The indictment claims Noriega and del Cid visited Castro in June or July 1984 after a drug lab in southern Panama's Darien province was accidentally raided by government. troops. The cartel had paid dlrs 4 million or dlrs 5 million to protect the lab, and demanded compensation.
Castro negotiated a deal and Noriega paid back the protection money, as well as releasing everyone arrested in the raid, the government claims.
Castro has denied that role, and said he would help Noriega's defense.
On the stand, del Cid, 47, detailed Noriega's rise through 1983, when he became Panama's supreme military commander and de factoruler. Noriega coupled loyalty and intrigue to control virtually all Panamanian life - especially airports and customs, he said. "Nothing came in through the airports of Panama that General. Noriega did not know about," del Cid testified. On Tuesday, del Cid a lieutenant colonel who was one of the last commanders to surrender to U.S. troops after the December 1989 invasion of Panama - testified briefly that he delivered money from cocaine pilot Floyd Carlton to Noriega.
Under the February 1988 indictment against Noriega, del Cid had faced a maximum 70 years in prison.
After highly public negotiations with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in December 1990 to one racketeering count. The U.S. attorney's office agreed to recommend no more than 10 years in prison - and as little as three - when he comes up for sentencing after Noriega's trial. Cont'd on page 2 from page 1 In mid-1983, del Cid said, he received an envelope with $150,000 from Carlton and later picked up a cash-stuffed suitcase, both of which he delivered to Noriega.
The government says another probable witness pilot and businessman Enrique Pretelt - also passed drug protection money to Noriega through del Cid.
Noriega's trial is expected to last three to six months. He faces up to 140 years if convicted of all 10 drug and racketeering counts charging him with accepting bribes from the Medellin cartel, allowing construction of cocaine labs and allowing drug profits to be laundered in Panamanian banks.
