By Andrew Warshaw
December 16 – Suspended former FIFA vice-president Juan Angel Napout (pictured) and one-time Honduras President Rafael Callejas have both pleaded not guilty in a Brooklyn court to bribery charges as part of the US probe into widespread football corruption.
Napout, who has stepped down as president of CONMEBOL, was appearing after being extradited from Zurich where he was recently arrested in the second swoop by Swiss police in six months, acting on behalf of the US authorities.
The Paraguayan is accused of taking bribes worth millions of dollars linked to the sale of marketing rights to South American tournaments but pleaded not guilty and was released on $20 million bail. Callejas pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.
Callejas, who led his country between 1990 and 1994, is a current member of FIFA’s television and marketing committee. Both he and Napout are among 16 current and former senior football officials recently added to the indictment list. The US have described the scandal as a “World Cup of fraud” alleging US banks were used to transfer money.
As the cases against all those indicted picked up steam, a Paraguay appeals court approved the extradition of Nicolas Leoz, another former CONMEBOL boss and FIFA executive committee member who has also been charged.
Leoz has been under house arrest in Paraguay since being indicted in May after that initial raid on the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich. He headed CONMEBOL from 1986 to 2013.
Swiss justice authorities have also revealed that Eduardo Li, former president of the Costa Rican federation who was another of those arrested in May, has dropped his appeal against extradition to the US after more than six months in jail. They said “no details concerning when Li will be handed over to the USA will be disclosed.”
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