The former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega was convicted Wednesday of money laundering and sentenced by a French judge to seven years in prison. Noriega, 76, was found guilty by the 11th chamber of the Tribunal Correctionnel de Paris, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said. The tribunal also ordered Noriega to forfeit about $2.9 million that had been frozen in his French bank accounts. The prosecutor in the case, Michel Maes, had sought a 10-year prison term. In 1999, Noriega was convicted in absentia of laundering $3 million in illicit funds for the Medellin drug cartel through international banks and into French accounts. The conviction Wednesday came as he was retried on the same charge after his April extradition to France from Miami, where he had been held after serving 15 years of a 30-year sentence in the United States. Olivier Metzner, a lawyer for Noriega, declined to comment Wednesday. Noriega's lawyers have argued that because of ill health, he is likely to die behind bars if he is given a long sentence. The defense has 10 days to appeal. But Antonin Levy, another lawyer for Noriega, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that the 32 months that Noriega spent waiting for extradition in Miami would count toward his French sentence, meaning he could be up for parole within a year. Noriega is still sought in Panama in connection with the 1985 assassination of Hugo Spadafora, an opponent of his government. Like the United States -- Noriega had long worked with the CIA and provided intelligence to other American agencies, his former aide-de-camp testified in the early 1990s -- France once had a close relationship with the strongman: He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur in 1987 by President Francois Mitterrand. But Noriega fell out of favor with Washington in the 1980s and was indicted on federal drug charges. On Dec. 20, 1989, the U.S. military invaded Panama to topple Noriega's government and capture him for trial in the United States. After seeking refuge in the Vatican Embassy, Noriega surrendered in January 1990. He was convicted by a Miami jury in April 1992 on charges of cocaine trafficking, racketeering and money laundering, the first time an American jury had convicted a foreign head of state of criminal charges. 