The Supreme Court today permitted the prosecution of an alleged Honduran drug dealer who said U.S. officials kidnapped and tortured him. The court, over one dissenting vote, rejected arguments that the defendant should be freed because U.S. officials violated international law and the U.S. and Honduras constitutions. Only Justice Byron R. White voted to hear arguments in the case. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February refused to bar prosecution of Juan Ramon Matta-Ballesteros, who faces drug charges in Arizona and California and was sentenced in a federal court in Florida to three years in prison for an earlier escape. Matta escaped from the Eglin Air Force Base prison in Florida in 1971 and fled to his native Honduras, which does not extradite its own citizens. He was arrested by Honduran authorities at his home in Tegucigalpa on April 5, 1988, and was turned over to U.S. marshals. Matta said the marshals, who took him to a federal prison in Marion, Ill., beat him severely and burned him with a stun gun that uses electric pulses to immobilize victims. U.S. officials denied those allegations and said any mistreatment Matta suffered while in custody was the work of his Honduran captors. Matta was transferred from Illinois to Florida, where he was convicted of escaping from federal custody. The 7th Circuit court ruled that even if Matta's rights were violated, he is not entitled to be freed. ``For the past 100 years, the Supreme Court has consistently held that the manner in which a defendant is brought to trial does not affect the ability of the government to try him,'' the appeals court said. If Matta was mistreated, the appeals court said, his remedy is to sue the government and the officials who allegedly violated his rights. A related issue has been raised by the arrest of a Mexican suspect in the 1985 murder of U.S. drug agent Enrique Camarena. A federal judge has ruled that U.S. officials violated an extradition treaty with Mexico when they seized Dr. Humberto Alvarez Machain, a gynecologist accused of administering drugs to Camarena while the agent was tortured. Justice Department lawyers are appealing the judge's ruling. The Mexican government protested Alvarez's arrest, in contrast to Matta's capture in which the Honduran government cooperated. The Supreme Court last February bolstered the fight against drug smuggling and terrorism when it ruled that U.S. agents do not need warrants to search in other countries. The court upheld the warrantless search of the home of a suspected Mexican drug smuggler. The case acted on today is Matta-Ballesteros v. Henman, 89-1797.
