By Paul Nicholson
December 19 – The hunting down of Jack Warner by the US Department of Justice suffered a second setback in six months when a judgement at the Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, refused the US access to join the legal team making the case for his extradition from the island.
Warner is appealing against Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s decision to sign off on an extradition request on the basis that his legal team were not given the opportunity to respond.
The US wanted to be included in the case as an interested party as it said that it didn’t feel that its interests would be best represented by the Trinidad Attorney General’s office.
The second judgement is consistent with a ruling by High Court Judge James Aboud, who dismissed a similar application in June leading to the appeal.
In the 17-page written judgement just handed down, Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Appellate Judges Allan Mendonca and Peter Jamadar ruled that the US had failed to prove that its interest differed from the AG’s office in Trinidad, which represents all foreign states in extradition proceedings.
Mendonca said: “One assumes that there would be full consultation between them prior to all court appearances in relation to all decisions proposed to be taken and submissions to be filed, as one would expect between a principal and agent in the usual course of such a relationship.”
Although the ruling appears to double-lock the door on the US getting involved in the local legal proceedings of whether Warner is extradited or not, Mendonca said the US was entitled to reapply if the circumstances change in the future.
While the Caribbean are hanging on to Warner, new stories are emerging in Europe of a file entitled ‘Earthquake’ which may throw new light on the role played by Jack Warner in the awarding of the 2006 World Cup.
The file was found by German investigators during the DFB’s own inquiry into events surrounding a mysterious loan to the 2006 bid committee from the late Robert Louis-Dreyfus, former owner of sportswear giant Adidas. The file had not been opened apparently due to concerns over the high cost of breaking the encryption. Now those concerns have been overcome and the file is in the hands of German prosecutors.
A date for the Warner extradition case is expected to be set when it comes up for hearing on March 13.
Warner, 72, 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 and other jurisdictions between 1990 and June 2011 when Warner quit FIFA.
Warner surrendered to Trinidad police after a provisional warrant was issued for his arrest. He spent one night on remand at the Port-of-Spain state prison before he was able to pay his $2.5 million bail.
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