Trinidad and Tobago High Court permanently halts Jack Warner extradition proceedings to U.S.
Key Points(5)
- A Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge has permanently halted extradition proceedings against former FIFA vice president Jack Warner , ruling that the case breached his constitutional rights.
- Justice Karen Reid on Friday ordered that the extradition proceedings against Warner “be permanently stayed” and ruled that the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago must pay damages for breaches of Warner’s constitutional rights.
- The amount of damages will be determined by the court if the parties cannot reach an agreement.
- The Attorney General was also ordered to pay Warner’s legal costs, certified fit for Senior and Junior Counsel.
- The assessment of damages has been scheduled for a case management conference on September 30.
A Trinidad and Tobago High Court judge has permanently halted extradition proceedings against former FIFA vice president Jack Warner, ruling that the case breached his constitutional rights.
Justice Karen Reid on Friday ordered that the extradition proceedings against Warner “be permanently stayed” and ruled that the Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago must pay damages for breaches of Warner’s constitutional rights. The amount of damages will be determined by the court if the parties cannot reach an agreement.
The Attorney General was also ordered to pay Warner’s legal costs, certified fit for Senior and Junior Counsel. The assessment of damages has been scheduled for a case management conference on September 30.
Warner, 82, faces 29 charges brought by U.S. authorities, including allegations of fraud, racketeering and illegal wire transfers linked to activities in the United States, Trinidad and Tobago and other countries between 1990 and June 2011.
He was arrested in 2015 under a provisional warrant following a U.S. extradition request and later released on TT$2.5 million bail. Warner was among several senior FIFA officials indicted after a 2015 investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Justice into corruption in international football.
The extradition proceedings had been delayed for years after Warner challenged the legality of the process, including the government’s decision to issue an Authority to Proceed (ATP) in 2015.
In her 71-page ruling, Justice Reid found that the issuance of the ATP without an arrangement between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States guaranteeing protections required under the country’s Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act violated Warner’s constitutional rights.
The judge said the absence of such an arrangement breached Warner’s right to liberty and his right not to be deprived of liberty except through due process of law under the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution.
Justice Reid also found that continuing the extradition proceedings after the Privy Council proceedings, where the state had represented that a special arrangement existed between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States, further breached Warner’s constitutional protections.
The extradition case had previously moved through several stages of legal challenges. Warner’s judicial review application against the 2015 ATP was dismissed by the High Court in 2017, and subsequent appeals were dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2019 and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in 2022.
The proceedings resumed before the Magistrate’s Court before Warner filed a constitutional challenge in March 2023, arguing that the state had failed in its duty of candour and violated his rights.
In addition to permanently staying the extradition proceedings, Justice Reid issued an order preventing the government from enforcing previous costs orders made against Warner in earlier judicial review proceedings.
