Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has signed off on the United States extradition request paving the way for case against corruption accused former Fifa vice president Jack Warner to proceed.
The announcement was made yesterday morning as Warner reappeared in the Port-of-Spain Magistrate’s Court for the continuation of his case.
It was met with objection from Warner’s lead attorney, Fyard Hosein, SC, who took issue with the fact that Al-Rawi had missed the last Wednesday’s deadline signing the authority to proceed in the case.
Attorneys for the requesting State had written to the court seeking an extension of the September 16 deadline to allow Al-Rawi more time to examine the extradition documents.
Presenting submissions before Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington, who held for Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar, who is out of the country, Hosein claimed that his client should be automatically discharged.
“This is a very complex case so I quite understand why the Attorney General took an extra week but it is very clear that the consequence of not signing the authority to proceed is a discharge,” Hosein said.
Although he admitted that he could not challenge the extradition documents signed by Al-Rawi and that his client may be re-arrested as soon as he is discharged, Hosein said the consequential declaration pertaining to Al-Rawi’s failure to meet last Wednesday’s deadline may be used in future legal challenges of the extradition.
In response, lead counsel for the State, James Lewis, QC, acknowledged the original deadline had been missed but dismissed Hosein’s demand as academic. He suggested it should have been made immediately upon the expiration of the deadline because as soon as the documents were signed the formal extradition proceedings against Warner began and the initial extradition request, which Warner was being prosecuted on, expired.
As he called upon Wellington to dismiss Hosein’s claim, Lewis added that the State was willing to allow Warner to continue to be on bail for the rest of the proceedings.
After almost an hour of back and forth arguments between the two attorneys, Wellington said he would have to adjourn the case to consider the issue further.
“I am troubled by the difference of opinion between the parties on this point and I need time to consider all that is before me,” Wellington said as he deferred the case to Friday.
Yesterday’s hearing was the first following a series of out-of-court developments in the case last week. Hours before the deadline expired, Al-Rawi wrote to Ayers-Caesar seeking an extension. However, there was no response.
On Friday, Al-Rawi fired several members of the original legal team hired by his predecessor Garvin Nicholas to represent the US interest in the case.
The only two local attorneys to be kept on by Al-Rawi, Pamela Elder, SC, and attorney Brent Hallpike, appeared alongside Lewis for yesterday’s hearing together with Central Authority head Netram Kowlessar. Warner was also represented by attorneys Nyree Alfonso and Rishi Dass.
Warner’s case
Warner, 72, of Cynthia Drive, Five Rivers, Arouca, is accused of 12 charges related to fraud, racketeering and for engaging in illegal wire transfers. The offences are alleged to have taken place in the United States, T&T and other jurisdictions between 1990 and when Warner quit Fifa in June 2011.
He is one of 14 former executives of world football’s governing body who were indicted on a series of charges after an investigation into corruption in football conducted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice.
Warner surrendered to police in May after a provisional warrant was issued for his arrest when US authorities announced the conclusion of their extensive investigation. Warner spent one night on remand at the Port-of-Spain State Prison before he was able to access his $2.5 million bail.
It took US authorities almost their entire 60-day deadline to foward their official request to the Office of the Attorney General, which is needed to prepare the authority to proceed. The documents arrived in T&T in late July.
In 2013, Warner resigned from his post of national security minister and UNC chairman after the publication of a report from Concacaf’s Integrity Committee showed financial mismanagement during his long tenure as the regional body’s president. Warner also resigned as Chaguanas West MP but later regained the seat in a by-election.
He then formed the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) but resigned as its leader after it failed to secure any seats in the September 7 general election.