MIAMI (Reuters) – United States can send to the former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega to France to face trial on charges of laundering money without violating their rights as a prisoner of war, determined the Wednesday a U.S. court of appeals.

After fulfilling his prison sentence in the United States in September 2007, local courts ordered his extradition to France to face charges of money laundering.

Noriega, who for 75 years and has spent more than 19 years in prison in United States, has remained a part of a Miami prison awaiting the outcome of the appeal.

In France he was convicted in absentia of laundering millions of dollars in cocaine trafficking.

To cover the origin of funds used for French banks and invested money in purchasing three luxurious apartments.

If extradited face a new trial.

Noriega was captured in Panama in January 1990, after which U.S. troops invaded the country a month earlier and was declared a prisoner of war during the subsequent trial for drug trafficking in Miami.

Noriega's lawyers have argued that his extradition to France would violate his rights under the Convention of Geneva, which governs the treatment given to prisoners of war. They also should be repatriated to Panama.

The 11th Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected the argument and agreed with the court earlier ruled that nothing in the treaty prohibits extradition to Geneva France, which has ensured that safeguard their rights as a prisoner of war.

His lawyers were still evaluating whether to appeal the Supreme Court.

No surprised by the outcome and still believe that we are right and we continue to consider any other option, said Jon May, one of the lawyers.

The person who has the last word is Secretary of State, he said.

's Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton would sign the extradition of Noriega.

Noriega, who was general in the Army, the CIA informant and ruled Panama as his personal fiefdom, was sentenced in 1992 in Miami on charges of drug trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton and Tom Brown, Edited by Javier Leira in Spanish)