CHIEF MAGISTRATE Maria Busby Earle-Caddle is expected in June, to rule on the latest legal challenge by former FIFA vice president and government minister Jack Warner in his battle against extradition to the United States to face a multiplicity of corruption-related charges.
On Friday, Earle-Caddle adjourned Warner’s extradition hearing to June 26. Before then, Warner’s attorneys are to file their responses to the State’s reply to his application filed in February.
February’s hearing was the first after extradition proceedings resumed following the Privy Council’s ruling on Warner’s challenge in November, last year.
At that hearing, Warner’s attorneys raised an issue related to the certificate of speciality and asked that they be allowed to file submissions on the issue which will have to be referred to the High Court for determination. The argument raised relates to the arrangement between the US and TT for extradition and speciality is a principle in international law which provides that a person who is extradited can be prosecuted or sentenced in the requesting state only in relation to the offenses for which extradition was granted and not for any other crime allegedly committed before the extradition took place.
On November 17, 2022, the Privy Council paved the way for the continuation of the extradition proceedings against Warner to the United States to face a barrage of fraud-related charges. The London court held that the US’s request for Warner’s extradition was not unfair.
The proceedings in the local court had been stalled when the former FIFA jefe challenged the process by which the extradition proceedings against him were carried out and he sought to quash the authority to proceed (ATP) signed by the Attorney General in September 2015. This was after the US asked for the former football jefe to be extradited to face some 29 charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering. The request was made on July 24, 2015.
After the 2015 general election, then-attorney general Faris Al-Rawi offered to allow Warner to make representations, but only on the condition the deadline for receipt of the ATP would be extended with his consent.
Warner refused to agree to the condition. His attorneys argued he was not given sufficient time to make representations, nor was he given disclosures of any evidence the US intended to use to secure his extradition.
The ATP gave the magistrate the green light to begin committal proceedings.
Attorneys for the State continue to press for the extradition hearings to proceed, insisting all their witnesses are available and were ready.
Warner is represented by Fyard Hosein, SC, Anil Maraj and Adam Hosein while appearing for ASP Alleyne, who is acting on the request of the US, is represented by James Lewis, KC, Douglas Mendes, SC, Pamela Elder, SC, Ravi Rajcoomar, Netram Kowlessar and Chris Seelochan.
Warner had also challenged the legality of the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act, and the treaty signed between this country and the US.
Warner
