PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A High Court judge was informed on Tuesday that Attorney General, John Jeremie, has launched an investigation into the actions of persons involved, including former attorneys general, in the extradition case of former International Football (FIFA) vice president, Jack Warner, to the United States where he faces multiple corruption-related charges.
British attorney, Robert Strang, who now leads the state’s team for the Office of the Attorney General, has since requested an adjournment of Warner’s latest extradition challenge currently being heard by Justice Karen Reid, who was expected to begin hearing submissions in Warner’s challenge before the adjournment was requested.
Strang told the court that several persons have been asked to respond to the findings of former chief magistrate, Maria Busby Earle-Caddle, following her June 2023 ruling on Warner’s request to challenge his extradition in the High Court.
“Some have given a first response, and in the interest of fairness, everything would have to be tested against the electronic and documentary evidence,” Strang said.
The former chief magistrate had ruled that Warner’s case raised seven legitimate legal questions stemming from an alleged 2015 extradition arrangement between the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.
She was critical of the state, citing inconsistencies and what she described as a “colossal misrepresentation” involving the former attorney general’s certification of that arrangement.
Warner’s challenge centres on the “speciality principle,” which bars prosecution for any offences not listed in an approved extradition request. The former FIFA executive has argued that the absence of a written agreement, required by law, renders the 2015 authority to proceed invalid.
The former chief magistrate had questioned how the then attorney general, Faris Al-Rawi, could certify an agreement that appears not to exist in writing.
A freedom of information request by Warner failed to uncover a copy of the agreement, and the former chief magistrate referred the matter to the High Court for urgent review, emphasising that extradition involves the deprivation of liberty and must adhere strictly to legal safeguards.
She also postponed Warner’s extradition hearing to allow the High Court to rule.
Strang said Jeremie had decided to “scrutinise and reassess” the state’s approach to the matter so far and had “taken the view that it’s necessary to investigate properly the allegations that have been made, because several serious allegations have been made against the Attorney General’s office and his predecessors in office.”
Strange quoted some of the findings by the former chief magistrate, saying that they suggested the Attorney General’s office engaged in surreptitious conduct in trying to persuade the court that there was no case to answer.
Jeremie is also reportedly concerned that the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council may have decided the matter based on an “incorrect understanding of the nature of the arrangement that had been certified.”
Warner’s legal team, led by Fyard Hosein, SC, contends that the state’s actions amounted to dishonesty, fabrication, and fraud by deliberately misrepresenting that a “written, bespoke” arrangement between the US and Trinidad and Tobago existed.
Strang said it was for this reason that the Attorney General initiated an investigation.
“He has conducted searches of his office’s files and asked key individuals for their accounts,” Strang said, telling the High Court, “ he considers it very important in the public interest that he respond to these allegations appropriately and that they be ventilated adequately on the evidence and with the accounts of those concerned.
“Because they call into question the standing of the Office of the Attorney General, and they damage the public’s confidence in the administration of justice, not to mention potentially having wider ramifications on future extraditions to the United States of America.
“So, the Attorney General takes the view in the circumstances that it is of the greatest importance. The Attorney General is keen and willing to conclude as quickly as reasonably and fairly practicable. He also agrees with the gravamen and seriousness of the allegations made”.
Strang apologised to Warner “for the fact that the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council was not allowed to decide his case on a correct understanding of the facts.
“Now, whether that was done dishonestly or improperly on the part of the Office of the Attorney General is a matter for further investigation by the present occupant of the Attorney General’s office.”
For his part, Hosein said that for over a decade, the state had misled the courts while Warner was made to pay the “ultimate penalty.
“This has to stop here. And if this case has to mark a line in the sand on executive misbehaviour and administrative misbehaviour by the state, let it be so. Gaslighting is taking place.”
Hosein did not object to the adjournment and commended Jeremie for his stance, while also seeking an undertaking that “all the lawyers, public officials, [and] the two previous attorneys general who handled this matter” would be interrogated and that full disclosure would be made to the court.
“This thing cannot end here. It would probably end up in a report to the police service and the bar association.”
Warner has been indicted in the US on 29 charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering during his tenure as vice president of FIFA. The US accuses Warner of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering, and bribery, alleging that from the early 1990s, he “began to leverage his influence and exploit his official positions for personal gain”.
The US indictment also accused him of accepting a bribe from South African officials in exchange for his vote to award them the 2010 World Cup and of distributing envelopes of cash to other officials.
Warner and 13 other FIFA officials were indicted in the US.
He has been banned for life by FIFA, and last year, Warner expressed confidence that the case against him in the United States was over, citing a 2024 US Supreme Court ruling that limited the reach of laws used in the FIFA corruption case and prompted a federal judge to overturn the convictions of two defendants.
The 81-year-old Warner remains on TT$2.5 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) bail.
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