Trinidad ends US extradition bid for ex-FIFA vice-president Warner

Trinidad and Tobago volition not extradite disgraced erstwhile FIFA vice-president Jack Warner to the United States, wherever helium has been charged with corruption, a justice said connected Tuesday.

Warner, 82, has been banned for beingness by FIFA implicit a 2015 corruption ungraded that engulfed satellite football’s governing assemblage and led to FBI arrests successful Zurich and the prosecution of respective apical officials.

Warner, a Trinidadian citizen, was indicted by the United States Department of Justice successful May, 2015 and an apprehension warrant was issued.

But, aft a 10-year-long saga, a precocious tribunal justice successful his autochthonal Trinidad recovered that the extradition statement betwixt the 2 countries was flawed.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Warner’s pb attorney, Fyard Hosein, argued that nary valid extradition statement existed astatine the clip that the apprehension warrant was issued.

“The contiguous extradition proceedings are permanently stayed,” justice Karen Reid said astatine the extremity of the precocious tribunal hearing, confirming that Warner would beryllium released from custody.

Warner was connected $370,000 bail portion challenging the extradition connected charges including racketeering, ligament fraud, wealth laundering and bribery.

US authorities accused him of leveraging his positions with the shot satellite for idiosyncratic summation and of engagement successful a 2010 World Cup bribery scheme.

Warner was 1 of the members of FIFA’s enforcement committee who voted to manus Russia and Qatar hosting rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments, respectively.

“Nothing could instrumentality distant the symptom and humiliation I felt for the past 10 years and don’t hide my incarceration,” Warner told AFP aft the hearing.

Warner was the president of the Trinidad and Tobago shot federation during the 2006 World Cup, the lone clip the state had ever qualified for the tournament.

The station Trinidad ends US extradition bid for ex-FIFA vice-president Warner appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.