Source: Reuter 4/12/97 French newspaper says Noriega may face drug money trial PARIS (Reuter) Panama's jailed former ruler Manuel Noriega could face trial in absentia in Paris on charges of laundering drug trafficking money in France, the daily Le Monde said Saturday. It said that earlier this month an investigating magistrate had ended a probe into Noriega's bank accounts in France, concluding that the money had ben paid by the Medellin drug cartel. Noriega's lawyers denied the allegations. Le Monde said magistrate Patrick Fievet had frozen the funds, worth tens of millions of francs (millions of dollars), which were part of a money laundering circuit going through London, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria. The magistrate's conclusions were pased on to a French state prosecutor who could order a trial. Le Monde's report could not be immediately confirmed by legal officials. Le Monde quoted Noriega's lawyers as saying they were writing to the Paris state prosecutor to explain that the funds came from the sale of Noriega's personal property and from fees received from the CIA. Noriega, who was captured during the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama, is now serving a 40year prison sentence for his 1992 conviction on drug and racketeering charges.