By: Staff Writer
November 18, 2022
A former Trinidadian cabinet minister vows to fight his extradition to the US handed down in a ruling by the Privy Council.
Jack Warner, former minister for national security under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar People’s Partnership government in 2010-2015, is fighting an extradition ruling handed down by the highest court in Trinidad, the Privy Council, to the United States to face charges of fraud while he served as a vice president of FIFA.
Mr Warner, in a statement to the press on the ruling, said that he has conferred with his lawyers on the matter and further said: “FIFA is an independent association not affiliated to any government or country. At all times it sought, in the interest of football, to offer opportunities to the widest cross section of the international community to host the World Cup. Particular attention was paid to developing countries who have been denied economic opportunity partly because for long periods they were under colonial domination.
“Against that background FIFA gave preference to South Africa, Russia and Qatar to host World Cup Finals. Naturally, the United States of America and the United Kingdom who had previously hosted the World Cup were not selected despite sustained lobbying. They were therefore not pleased and thereafter began a campaign against FIFA which resulted in the arrest and prosecution of several Executive Committee members of FIFA who had assembled for a meeting in Zurich. I note that several European countries including France and Switzerland, several Latin American countries, including Brazil, and several African and Middle Eastern countries have refused to extradite their citizens. Trinidad and Tobago is therefore an outlier.
“I have no banking account nor property in the United States. I have not transacted any business there. It is unfathomable how a New York District Attorney could commence a prosecution against me based solely on the fact that monies payable to me passed through the American banking system. Furthermore, it is incredulous that allegations of misconduct arising out of a FIFA meeting held in Trinidad could be prosecuted in the United States whereas, in Trinidad itself it does not constitute criminal activity.
“I continue to have confidence in my team led by Fyard Hosein Senior Counsel, and I have advised them to continue to press my case on the three remaining stages of these proceedings. I have lived in this country for nearly eighty years, and I am confident that I will continue to receive the love, affection, and respect that people from all walks of life have always extended to me. I am certain I will prevail in the end.”
As you can recall, Warner was one of several FIFA executives caught up in several corruption allegations, mostly related to the 2018 World Cup bid. He is accused, along with several others, of asking for compensation in return for votes for England’s 2018 World Cup bid. Warner reportedly asked for £2.5m that would go toward building an education centre in Trinidad. All allegations he has dismissed as “nonsense.”
The Privy Council has dismissed former FIFA executive and government minister Jack Warner’s final appeal over the dismissal of his lawsuit challenging the extradition to the United States.
Five Privy Council judges, Lords Hodge, Briggs, Hamblem, Burrows, and Sir Declan Morgan, delivered their decision on Warner’s challenge on Thursday.
Submissions were heard from lawyers representing Warner and the Office of the Attorney General earlier this year, at the UK’s Supreme Court in London, England.
The Privy Council said, “The offer by the new Attorney General was inevitably subject to agreeing a fresh timetable with the court. It was the appellant’s choice to decline that opportunity. The Attorney General (Former AG, Faris Al-Rawi) did not act unfairly”.
The latest decision makes provision for extradition proceedings before Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle-Caddle, to resume after it was put on a hold for Warner’s civil litigation.
The former FIFA vice-president and head of CONCACAF, is one of 13 other FIFA officials indicted in the US, following an investigation, headed by the US FBI and DOJ, charged with looking into corruption into the football body. Warner is accused of 12 charges related to fraud, racketeering and engaging in illegal wire transfers. The offences are alleged to have taken place in the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as other jurisdictions between 1990 and June 2011.
A short while ago Attorney General, Reginald Dumas responded to the ruling sharing “I am able to assure the citizenry of this Republic that in Trinidad and Tobago that the rule of law and due process are alive and well and, the law must now be allowed to take its course”.