PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A Excessive Court docket choose Friday set September 23 because the date on whether or not or not she is going to rule in favour or in opposition to former vp of the Worldwide Soccer Federation (FIFA), Austin “Jack” Warner, to be extradited to the US, the place he’s wished on a number of fraud-related fees.
She ordered Warner’s attorneys to file supplemental submissions by September 19.
Warner 81 faces 29 fees from US authorities for fraud, racketeering, and unlawful wire transfers that allegedly occurred within the North American nation of Trinidad and Tobago, in addition to in different international locations, between 1990 and June 2011.
He was arrested on a provisional warrant pursuant to an extradition request and later launched on TT$2.5 million (roughly US$0.16) bail. Warner is certainly one of a number of senior FIFA officers indicted following a 2015 US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Division of Justice probe into corruption in worldwide soccer.
In August of this 12 months, Lawyer Normal John Jeremie launched an inner investigation into how the State dealt with Warner’s extradition case, following severe allegations of misrepresentation and misconduct tied to a 2015 settlement with the US.
Former Chief Justice of the Peace Maria Busby Earle-Caddle had acknowledged in June 2023 that there was no formal written settlement between Trinidad and Tobago and the US authorizing Warner’s extradition.
When the matter got here up for listening to on Friday, Justice Karen Reid was informed that the Workplace of the Lawyer Normal had since conceded {that a} key doc supporting the extradition request is non-existent. Because of this, the authorized proceedings in opposition to him must be stopped.
However the choose mentioned that she was not instantly ready to quash the proceedings and directed that additional written submissions be filed for her consideration.
British King’s Counsel, Robert Strang, representing the Lawyer Normal’s Workplace, informed the courtroom that there was no present “speciality” association between the 2 international locations that supported the certificates used to proceed with Warner’s extradition.
“Provided that at current the claimant is beneath persevering with authorized restraints on his liberty, the courtroom ought to order that the ATP be put aside and that any persevering with restraints on the claimant’s liberty be put aside. And, I agree that that’s open to the courtroom based mostly on the admitted breaches of the Structure that the Lawyer Normal set out in his written submissions…” Strang informed the choose.
Strang argued that “any persevering with restraint” on Warner’s liberty and the Authority to Proceed (ATP) that former lawyer basic Faris Al-Rawi SC signed must be put aside, including additionally that the extradition proceedings in opposition to Warner must be quashed.
Strang mentioned Jeremie was not keen to concede that Al-Rawi and one other former lawyer basic, Reginald Armour, SC, had intentionally misled the courts in any respect three ranges by insisting that there was certainly a speciality association in place.
“The Lawyer Normal can’t be choose and jury. That could be a matter for the courtroom to pronounce upon,” mentioned Strang.
However Warner’s lead lawyer, Fyard Hosein, SC, mentioned. On the identical time, he was grateful to Strang and the present lawyer basic for the stance they’d taken in asking that the extradition proceedings be completely stayed; it was “clear as day” based mostly on courtroom paperwork that the previous attorneys basic representing the State within the matter had the truth is “intentionally, convincingly, knowingly and fraudulently misled the courts.”
“The State spent tens of thousands and thousands on this matter. They informed lies to the courtroom. They lied to the Excessive Court docket, they lied to the Court docket of Attraction, they lied to the Privy Council, and so they have been supported by two attorneys basic,” mentioned Hosein.
“The authority to proceed is null, void, and of no impact,” he mentioned, including, “for over ten years, the State knowingly misled each courtroom on this matter. This isn’t an error; that is fraud. And the taxpayers proceed to pay the value.”
Hosein pressed the choose to put aside the ATP instantly.
“There isn’t any authority to carry Mr Warner any extra after at this time, as a result of if he continues to be held, the taxpayers of this nation must proceed to pay damages for his detention, which began greater than ten years in the past.”
The lawyer additionally urged that, along with the extradition proceedings being quashed, Warner must also be entitled to vital compensation for the previous decade throughout which his liberty had been taken away, and that the State must also bear all of his previous authorized prices associated to the matter.
The choose dominated that allegations of fraud raised by Hosein, regarding Warner’s extradition and earlier litigation dismissed by each the native courts and the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, could be addressed individually in a full trial on October 3.
The extradition case was paused whereas Warner pursued a civil declare alleging inconsistencies between Trinidad and Tobago’s extradition treaty with the US and the Extradition (Commonwealth and Overseas Territories) Act, which was handed in 1985 and amended in 2004.
The Privy Council upheld native courtroom rulings dismissing Warner’s declare, discovering that the treaty and laws have been sufficiently aligned regardless of minor variations.
Nonetheless, Strang mentioned, “It’s plain that the Privy Council determined the case based mostly on a misunderstanding of information fostered by the AG’s Workplace.”
