
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993                   TAG: 9308190175
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Short

NORIEGA TO REMAIN IN FLORIDA

Manuel Noriega won't have to spend the rest of his life sharing jail space with the likes of Mafia don John Gotti and other notorious hoods, prison officials decided Wednesday.

He'll stay in Dade County, a permanent resident.

For months, the former Panamanian dictator has fought to stay out of the nation's toughest penitentiary, at Marion, Ill., where prosecutors wanted to put him.

Noriega prefers the Metropolitan Correctional Center south of Miami, where he has lived since his capture by invading U.S. troops in early 1990.

His accommodations have two rooms - one with bunk and shower, the other with toilet, sink, table, exercise bike and television set. In back: a tiny patio.

Though he's serving 40 years for drug trafficking, his status as a political prisoner helped. He's entitled to regular exercise and access to sunlight - away from prisoners who might harm him.

"But at the same time we have to provide him with services and programs," said Bureau of Prisons spokesman Greg Bogdan.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB