PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A High Court judge has set September 23 as the date on whether or not she will rule in favor or against former vice president of the International Football federation (FIFA), Austin “Jack” Warner to be extradited to the United States where he is wanted on several fraud related charges.
Austin “Jack” Warner leaving the High Court at a previous hearing (File Photo)She ordered Warner’s attorneys to file supplemental submissions by September 19.
Warner, 81, faces 29 charges from US authorities for fraud, racketeering, and illegal wire transfers that allegedly took place in the North American country, Trinidad and Tobago, and other countries between 1990 and June 2011.
He was arrested on a provisional warrant under the extradition request and later released on TT$2.5 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) bail. Warner is one of several senior FIFA officials indicted following a 2015 US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice probe into corruption in international football.
In August this year, Attorney General John Jeremie launched an internal investigation into how the State handled Warner’s extradition case, after serious allegations emerged regarding misrepresentation and misconduct tied to a 2015 agreement with the United States.
Former chief magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle had in June 2023 said that there was no formal written agreement between Trinidad and Tobago and the US authorizing Warner’s extradition.
When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, Justice Karen Reid, was told that the Office of the Attorney General has since conceded that a key document supporting the extradition request is non-existent, and as a result, the legal proceedings against him should be stopped.
But the judge said that she was not immediately prepared to quash the proceedings and directed that further written submissions be filed for her consideration.
British King’s Counsel, Robert Strang, representing the Attorney General’s Office, told the court that there was no existing “specialty” arrangement between the two countries that supported the certificate used to proceed with Warner’s extradition.
“Given that at present the claimant is under continuing legal restraints on his liberty, the court should order that the ATP be set aside and that any continuing restraints on the claimant’s liberty be set aside. And, I agree that that is open to the court based on the admitted breaches of the Constitution that the Attorney General set out in his written submissions…” Strang told the judge.
Strang argued that “any continuing restraint” on Warner’s liberty and the Authority to Proceed (ATP) that was signed by former attorney general Faris Al-Rawi SC should be set aside, adding also that the extradition proceedings against Warner should be quashed.
Strang said Jeremie was not willing to concede that Al-Rawi and another former attorney general, Reginald Armour, SC, had deliberately misled the courts at all three levels by insisting that there was indeed a specialty arrangement in place.
“The Attorney General cannot be judge and jury. That is a matter for the court to pronounce upon,” said Strang.
But Warner’s lead attorney, Fyard Hosein, SC, said while he was grateful to Strang and the current attorney general for the stance they had taken in asking that the extradition proceedings be permanently stayed, it was “clear as day” based on court documents that the former attorneys general representing the State in the matter had in fact “deliberately, convincingly, knowingly and fraudulently misled the courts.”
“The State spent tens of millions on this matter. They told lies to the court. They lied to the High Court, they lied to the Court of Appeal, they lied to the Privy Council and they were supported by two attorneys general,” said Hosein.
“The authority to proceed is null, void, and of no effect,” he said, adding “for over ten years, the State knowingly misled every court in this matter. This is not an error; this is fraud. And the taxpayers continue to pay the price.”
Hosein pressed the judge to immediately set aside the ATP.
“There is no authority to hold Mr Warner any more after today, because if he continues to be held, the taxpayers of this country will have to continue to pay damages for his detention, which started more than ten years ago.”
The attorney also suggested that in addition to the extradition proceedings being quashed, Warner should also be entitled to significant compensation for the past decade that his liberty had been taken away, and that the State should also bear all of his past legal costs related to the matter.
The judge ruled that allegations of fraud raised by Hosein, relating to Warner’s extradition and earlier litigation dismissed by both the local courts and the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, would be addressed separately in a full trial on October 3.
The extradition case was paused while Warner pursued a civil claim alleging inconsistencies between Trinidad and Tobago’s extradition treaty with the United States and the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act, which was passed in 1985 and amended in 2004.
The Privy Council upheld local court rulings dismissing Warner’s claim, finding that the treaty and legislation were sufficiently aligned despite minor differences.
But Strang said “it is plain that the Privy Council decided the case based on a misunderstanding of facts fostered by the AG’s Office”.
