Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega has appeared before French prosecutors after his US extradition and will fight charges against him, his lawyers say.
Noriega will argue French courts do not have jurisdiction to try him as he is immune from prosecution and because the statute of limitations has expired.
He was convicted in France in his absence in 1999 for money laundering but will face a new trial.
He spent more than 20 years in jail in the US on drugs charges.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday signed a “surrender warrant” and Noriega was taken to Miami airport and handed to French prison officials on an Air France plane.
