ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo set to lead FIFA ethics team

By Andrew Warshaw

May 30 – FIFA’s clean-up campaign to root out corruption looks set to take a vital step forward by capturing the services of the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Luis Moreno Ocampo (pictured above), a leading human rights lawyer who has led investigations into a number of war crimes, is the leading candidate to take on the role of chairman of the investigations arm of FIFA’s Ethics Committee.

The Argentine is standing down from his ICC position in The Hague next month and is expected to then start work as the man to lead the probe into any breaches of FIFA’s Ethics Code.

Ocampo made his name prosecuting members of the Argentina junta during the 1970s and 1980s.

He was appointed as the first chief prosecutor of the ICC in 2003, and has been responsible for bringing charges against a number of people accused of war crimes and human rights abuses including Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam and former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo.

FIFA is splitting its Ethics Committee into two bodies, each with an independent chairman, as part of its two-year road map to reform.

The investigations side will be responsible for bringing charges, and judicial side for taking sanctions.

Ocampo’s appointment would represent a serious statement of intent by FIFA, rocked by last year’s cash-for-votes scandal in which a raft of Caribbean members were accused of taking bribes and which led to the resignation of senior vice-president Jack Warner and former Asian powerbroker Mohamed Bin Hammam being banned for life.

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