VOA标准英语2010年-French Court Sentences Noriega to 7 Ye

court has convicted former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega for laundering¹ drug money in France in the 1980s and ordered him to spend seven years in prison, (File).

A French court on Wednesday convicted Panama's former military ruler Manuel Noriega on charges of laundering drug money, sentencing him to seven years in prison.

 

Manuel Noriega spent most of the past two decades behind bars in the United States.  Now a French court has sentenced him to another seven years in prison.  He was found guilty by a Paris court of laundering about $2 million worth of illegal drug money.  He is accused of taking money from Colombian drug lords while he was in power during the 1980s and putting the money in French bank accounts.

Noriega's lawyers argued that as a serving head of state, he should have been immune from prosecution².  One of his lawyers, Antonin Levy³, called the decision by the French court politically motivated.

"The critical issue was, of course, politics," said Levy.  "They by all means are trying to keep General Noriega in jail.  They don't want him to go out.  He's been in jail for more than 20 years now and the maximum rule is to keep him inside a cell.  And they will do everything they can, everything possible to make him stay in jail and not go back to Panama."

Noriega was arrested in 1990, after the United States invaded Panama and removed him from power.  He was given a 40-year sentence in 1992, which was later reduced to 30 years on appeal and further reduced to 17 years.  He was held in custody⁴ pending⁵ his extradition⁶ to France earlier this year.

Noriega's attorney, Olivier Metzner, told journalists that the sentence was severe.  Metzner said Noriega should not spend another seven years imprisoned⁷ in France after already serving his sentence in the United States.

Noriega is 76 years old and his lawyers say he is in poor health.
 

1 laundering   

n.洗涤（衣等），洗烫（衣等）；洗（钱）v.洗（衣服等），洗烫（衣服等）( launder的现在分词 )；洗（黑钱）（把非法收入改头换面，变为貌似合法的收入）

参考例句：

• Separate the white clothes from the dark clothes before laundering. 洗衣前应当把浅色衣服和深色衣服分开。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was charged with laundering money. 他被指控洗钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

3 levy   

n.征收税或其他款项，征收额

参考例句：

• They levy a tax on him.他们向他征税。
• A direct food levy was imposed by the local government.地方政府征收了食品税。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

6 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。

7 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。