Warner to fight extradition at Privy Council

FORMER government minister Jack Warner has received conditional leave to take his challenge of the extradition proceedings against him to the Privy Council.

At a conditional leave hearing at the Court of Appeal on Monday, Justices Nolan Bereaux, Judith Jones and Charmaine Pemberton set out reduced time-frames for the procedural steps to be taken by Warner. These include paying a fee and settling the record, before final leave can be granted for him to take his case to the court in London.

They also granted a conditional stay of the committal proceedings in the magistrates’ court until the hearing and determination of the appeal in the Privy Council. In arguing for conditional leave and the stay of the proceedings, Warner’s attorney Fyard Hosein SC, contended that the State has indicated his client had a valid appeal. He also submitted that this country’s extradition treaty with the US was inconsistent with the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act.

Attorney for the State, Douglas Mendes, SC, agreed to the stay but urged Warner’s legal team to seek an expedited hearing of the appeal at the Privy Council since, according to him, the case could impact all extraditions to the US. He said the issue needed to be pronounced on since, if Warner’s arguments were correct, then no one could be extradited until the flaw was corrected.

Warner is challenging the process by which the extradition proceedings against him are being carried out and seeks to quash the authority to proceed (ATP) which was signed in 2016 by Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi. The ATP gave the magistrate the green light to begin committal proceedings. Warner also challenged the legality of the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act, and the treaty signed between this country and the US.

In June, the Court of Appeal dismissed his judicial review claim, but stayed the proceedings before Chief Magistrate Maria Busby-Earle Caddle so that Warner could seek permission to argue his case at the Privy Council.

In their ruling, Justices of Appeal Gregory Smith, Prakash Moosai and Andre des Vignes said the extradition treaty had not been shown to lack conformity with the act and there was no merit in Warner’s case that the US order, which declared that country as a declared foreign territory, was not valid.

“Therefore, the pending extradition proceedings in respect of the appellant before the magistrate are valid,” the judges held, adding that “there was no denial of justice in the issuance of the ATP by the Attorney General.”

Warner is wanted in the US for a series of fraud-related offences allegedly committed during his tenure as vice-president of world football’s governing body FIFA.

He surrendered himself to fraud squad officers on May 27, 2015, after learning of the provisional warrant.

He is on $2.5 million bail.

Also appearing for the AG are Michael Quamina and Sean Julien while attorneys Rishi Dass, Sasha Bridgemohansingh, Anil Maraj and Nyree Alphonso also represent Warner.