PORT of SPAIN (AFP) – Former FIFA executive Jack Warner will face an extradition hearing in December after authorities in Trinidad and Tobago quashed attempts to have the case against him tossed out, officials said yesterday. Warner, 72, was indicted in May by a U.S. grand jury on 12 charges of wire fraud, racketeering and money-laundering over an escalating scandal at FIFA, football’s world governing body.
“I do not think I can accede to the request,” Deputy Chief Magistrate Mark Wellington told a hearing, ruling against a bid by Warner’s legal team to dismiss the case.
Wellington set a December 2 date for Warner’s extradition hearing.
U.S. authorities have charged 14 FIFA officials and sports marketing executives of soliciting and receiving more than $150M in bribes and kickbacks over two decades.
On July 23, U.S. authorities asked for Warner, a former head of football’s governing body in North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF) to be extradited to face the charges.
So far only three of those charged are in the jurisdiction of New York.
Warner and nine other defendants are still fighting extradition to the United States — six from Switzerland, where they were arrested in a May swoop on a Zurich hotel — two from Argentina and one from Uruguay.
Warner says that the U.S. case against him is politically motivated and that America is trying to exact revenge because it lost out to Qatar in the vote to host the 2022 World Cup.