PORT OF SPAIN:  Jack Warner, most notorious of all the former FIFA bosses on the United States’ wanted list, has lost the latest round in the long-running fight to resist extradition from Trinidad & Tobago writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Warner, 73, was long-time president of the central and north American football confederation (CONCACAF) and a vice-president of the world governing body when he quit the game in 2011 rather than face vote-rigging charges in a presidential election.

Four years later he was indicted by the US Justice Department on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money-laundering conspiracies over 24 years in the $200m FIFAGate case.

The former stand-in prime minister of Trinidad hired a team of senior British lawyers to contest a US extradition request. This involved seeking a judicial review of the extradition process which has now failed.

A 50-page ruling in the high court delivered by Justice James Aboud dismissed Warner’s challenge to the Office of the Attorney General in signing off on the US government’s request in May 2015.

Appeal option

Extradition proceedings in the Port-of-Spain Magistrate’s Court can now resume unless Warner, at some stage in the next 28 days, decides to appeal.

Warner had claimed the case against him is politically motivated and has accused the US of seeking revenge because it lost to Qatar in its bid to host the 2022 World Cup.

He is not the only refusenik. US lawyers are also struggling to obtain the extradition of former South American football supremo Nicolas Leoz from Paraguay as well as Brazilian federation president Marco Polo del Nero and a predecessor, Ricardo Teixeira, from Rio de Janeiro.

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