PORT OF SPAIN: Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, as expected, has gained another delay in the United States Justice Department’s attempt to obtain his extradition from Trinidad & Tobago writes KEIR RADNEDGE.
Warner, one-time major powerbroker within the world football federation, is wanted by the US to stand trial on corruption charges arising out of the $200m FIFAGate investigation.
In September Justice James Aboud dismissed an appeal by Warner against a High Court refusal to grant him a judicial review of the Attorney General’s approval of the extradition application which had been submitted in May 2015.
Warner claimed that the extradition treaty with the US contradicted the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act.
Aboud ruled Warner’s concerns as exaggerated and speculative. Warner had also argued that Attorney-General Faris Al-Rawi had failed to give his attorneys a fair opportunity to make representations before he approved the Authority to Proceed, which was required to restart proceedings in the magistrates’ court.
Now Warner’s appeal against the judicial review refusal was referred by acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle-Caddle for a preliminary hearing on December 16.
A further hearing has been set provisionally for January 18 after the outcome of the application for a stay of the proceedings in the magistrates court.
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