Port-of-Spain (Trinidad), Sep 26 (IANS) The hearing on a US request for the extradition of former football executive Jack Warner to face corruption charges will begin December 2, a Trinidadian judge has ruled.
Deputy chief magistrate Mark Wellington dismissed attempts by lawyers for Warner7,2, on Friday to have the matter thrown out of court, denying a request that the one-time FIFA vice president be discharged from the provisional US arrest warrant, reports Efe.
Warner’s attorneys had requested the discharge after Attorney General Faris al Rawi delayed signing the document, known as Authority to Proceed, necessary for the Trinidad and Tobago courts to consider the US extradition request.
Al Rawi, who became attorney general following the September 7 general elections, had asked Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayres-Caesar to amend her order establishing a September 16 deadline for signing the Authority to Proceed so as to allow him more time to review the extradition documents.
Though al Rawi eventually signed the document, Warner’s legal team said his signature was invalid because it came after the deadline set by Ayres-Caesar.
Warner is one of 14 former and present FIFA officials indicted in the US on a number of charges including corruption and wire fraud relating to their alleged activities while part of soccer’s world governing body.