Panama's Justice Minister Olga Golcher says former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega will be jailed if he tries to return home after he is released from a U.S. prison later this year.
Golcher says Noriega is considered a convict in Panama, and she says he must face the prison system there.
The former dictator was overthrown by a U.S.-led invasion in December 1989. He is serving a 30-year sentence in Miami for protecting Colombian cocaine shipments through Panama. But he is due to be released for good behavior in September.
Since his U.S. jailing, Noriega was convicted in Panama of murdering two political opponents back in the 1980s.
Justice Minister Golcher says Panama requested Noriega's extradition from the U.S. in 1991 but never got a reply.
His attorney, Frank Rubino, says Noriega wants to go home and enjoy the rest of his life and will fight the Panama charges.