By Mark Baber
August 25 – A spokesperson for the Swiss Justice Ministry has confirmed a ruling will be made next month on the extradition requests filed by the US against the FIFA officials accused of corruption currently in Switzerland, whilst the lawyer for Nicolas Leoz, the former head of CONMEBOL, has applied to a Paraguayan judge for the extradition request filed against him to be rejected.
Ex-FIFA Vice-President Jeffrey Webb waived his rights to fight extradition and is currently on bail in the US. Folco Galli, a spokesman for the Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice, told AFP that a decision on the fate of the six suspects who remain in Switzerland will be made in September.
With regard to one of the suspects – Julio Rocha – the situation is complicated by an extradition request from his home country of Nicaragua (to which Rocha is prepared to submit). In his case, Swiss prosecutors are waiting to see if the US will set aside their extradition request – if not the Swiss will have to determine to whose request they will accede.
The other five suspects include Eugenio Figueredo (former FIFA vice-President), Eduardo Li (FIFA executive committee-elect), Jose Maria Marin (former head of the Brazilian Football Federation), Costas Takkas (a UK citizen who is described as an attaché to Jeff Webb but had no official position in football) and Rafael Esquivel (president of the Venezuelan Football Federation).
Meanwhile in Paraguay, the lawyer for Nicolas Leoz, who is being held under house arrest in Asunción, has asked for the US extradition request in his case to be thrown out as there is no law on how to decide on extradition requests. The judge in his case has said he will respond in three days time.
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