By JUAN ZAMORANO Associated Press PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- More than two decades after the US forced him from power, Manuel Noriega returned to Panama on Sunday as a prisoner and, to many of those he once ruled with impunity, an irrelevant man. Some Panamanians feel hatred for the former strongman and rejected American ally; a few others nostalgia. But hours before his arrival in the capital, Panama City, it seemed like few had any strong feelings at all. The crowds were not of protesters or supporters but holiday shoppers. French officials turned Noriega over to their Panamanian counterparts early Sunday. His flight from Paris, with a stop in Madrid, landed in Panama that evening. Officials said a helicopter was waiting to whisk him to the El Renacer prison. Noriega served prison terms in the US and France before being sent back to Panama to answer for the deaths of political opponents. The ailing, 77-year-old former general is returning to a country much different from the one he left after surrendering to US forces January 3, 1990. The government, once a revolving cast of military strongmen, is now governed by its fourth democratically elected president, Ricardo Martinelli. El Chorrillo, Noriega's boyhood neighbourhood and a downtown slum that was heavily bombed during the 1989 invasion, now stands in the shadow of luxury high-rise condominiums that have sprung up along the Panama Canal since the United States handed over control of the waterway in 2000. The rotting wooden tenements of the community have been replaced by cement housing blocks. Noriega's former headquarters have been torn down and converted into a park with basketball courts. While some Panamanians are eager to see punishment for the man who stole elections and dispatched squads of thugs to beat opponents bloody in the streets, others believe his return means little. "I don't think Noriega has anything hugely important to say," said retired General Ruben Dario Paredes, who headed Panama's army before Noriega took over in the early 1980s. "The things he knows about have lost relevance, because the world has changed and the country has, as well." "In politics, he won't have any great impact, because the people of Panama have other concerns," said Marco Gandasegui, a sociology professor at Panama's Center for Latin American Studies. Things were different in the 1970s and 1980s, when Noriega, whose pockmarked face earned him the nickname "Pineapple Face," became a valuable ally to the CIA. At that time, Noriega helped the US combat leftist movements in Latin America by providing information and logistical help, and also acted as a back channel for US communications with unfriendly governments such as Cuba's. But as the Cold War waned, Noriega became a more powerful and unforgiving dictator at home. Tensions developed between the strongman and US officials, who also had been aware for some time that he was also working with the Colombia-based Medellin drug cartel. A US grand jury indicted him on drug charges in 1988, escalating tensions between his forces and US troops stationed around the Panama Canal. A US Marine was killed in one clash. President George H W Bush also accused Noriega's men of abusing a US Navy serviceman and his wife. On December 20, 1989, more than 26,000 US troops began moving into Panama City, clashing with Noriega loyalists in fighting that left sections of the city devastated. Twenty-three US troops, 314 Panamanian soldiers and 200 civilians died in the operation. The dictator hid in bombed and burned-out neighbourhoods before he sought refuge in the Vatican Embassy, which was besieged by US troops playing loud rock music. When he gave up he was flown to Miami for trial on drug-related charges. Noriega was convicted on the US drug trafficking charges two years after the invasion, and served 17 years. He received special treatment as a prisoner of war and lived in his own bungalow with a TV and exercise equipment. When his sentence ended, he was extradited to France, which convicted him for laundering millions of dollars in drug profits through three major French banks, and investing drug cash in three luxury Paris apartments. In Panama, Noriega was sentenced in absentia to 20-year prison terms for the murders of military commander Moises Giroldi, slain after leading a failed 1989 rebellion, and Hugo Spadafora, a political opponent found decapitated on the border with Costa Rica in 1985. He received a 20-year sentence in a third case involving the death of troops who aided one of his opponents in a rebellion, and could be tried in the deaths of other opponents. Unlike his minimum-security digs outside Miami, Noriega's cell in Panama's El Renacer prison will be spartan. Noriega "will be located in an individual cell, without luxuries and in similar conditions to the rest of the inmates," Interior Ministry spokeswoman Vielka Pritsiolas said. Pictures posted on the ministry's website showed a cell with little more than a bed, a table, and a shelf. It has its own tiny bathroom, relatively wide window slits and door screens that look out onto a sunny, tropical space with plants. Noriega's lawyers in Panama have said they plan to request house arrest under a law that allows those over 70 to serve their sentences at home. His legal team says he has blood pressure problems and is paralyzed on the left side as a result of a stroke several years ago. Hatuey Castro, 82, a Noriega opponent who was detained and beaten by his henchmen, says it is about time Noriega paid for what he did. "Noriega was responsible for the invasion and those who died in the operation," he said. "He dishonoured his uniform, there was barely a shot and he went off to hide. He must pay." Others are more sympathetic toward the aging ex-general. When last seen during his extradition from the United States to France, he appeared to have difficulty walking and was assisted by others. "This man has paid for his crimes, and it looks like he can hardly walk anymore," said 67-year-old retiree Hildaura Velasco. "If he dies in prison, or at home, what does it matter?" Dance professor Ileana de Sola, 80, says it's time to let the past go. "At his age, they should forgive him and not hurt him," she said. "The people in the Panamanian government now have been good and not so good. So he's not the only one who has committed sins. ... They should leave him alone." Although they are probably in a minority, there are also those who harbor a certain nostalgia for the Noriega era. Panama has seen a spike in street gangs and drug violence since his ouster. The country also remains a base for international drug trafficking and money laundering, and suffers from income inequality. Its government is struggling with an ambitious plan to expand the Panama Canal, and to balance foreign investment in tourism and mining against concerns they could harm the environment. Where Martinelli, the current president, rose to prominence as a supermarket magnate, Noriega worked hard to develop the image of a man of the people. His private life was that of a rich man, but publicly he stressed his humble origins and spent weekends courting the residents of rural towns and villages. Noriega "did bad things, but he also did good things," said Sabina Delgado, 60, a mother of six who has lived her whole life in El Chorrillo, which has been hit by a wave of violent gang crime. "Imagine, when he was here, the country didn't have as much crime. There weren't as much drugs, there was more control."