Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 23/Sep 19:58

Warner’s extradition case collapses over ‘flawed’ process

FORMER Fifa vice-president Jack Warner is a “free” man and cannot be handed over to the United States as all extradition proceedings against him have been permanently stayed by the High Court. In a significant move on September 23, Justice Karen Reid held that Warner was subjected to a “flawed” extradition process. “Ordinarily, civil courts are slow to make any decision, the effect of which is to thwart the conduct of criminal prosecutions, as the public interest is usually best served by having those prosecutions determined on their merits.” However, she added, “When it comes to the handing over of citizens for extraterritorial prosecution, the Extradition Act provides a manner in which this is to be done, and the protections that are required to be put in place for the protection of our citizens.” One of these protections, the judge noted, was the rule of specialty, designed to protect TT citizens from being prosecuted for offences other than those for which they are being extradited. “A few things have become obvious. It is not in dispute that the only arrangement existing between the requesting state and Trinidad and Tobago is the treaty.” She referred extensively to the Privy Council’s findings on the treaty provisions in relation to the specialty rule, noting that the alternative of relying on the requesting state's laws to afford such protection would lead to uncertain results owing to differences in statutory interpretation or changes in the law. According to the judge, the Privy Council noted that because of the differences, TT’s Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act “provided for specialty arrangements to be made to secure the protection of the rights of our citizens who are being extradited.” “The board accepted the assumption that the requesting state was acting in good faith and that even absent an agreement, the United States usually applied the specialty rule. “And finally, the board found that the certificate of the attorney general disclosed a specialty arrangement which complied with the law.” However, she said in Warner’s case, the arrangement the local and apex courts were led to believe existed was a fiction. This speciality principle was central to Warner’s case. She noted, "This breach is more significant when the court considers the change in administration of the requesting state since the delivery of the board's decision in 2022 and notwithstanding the references therein to the board's acceptance that the requesting state will act in good faith and on its international obligations, the new administration has very publicly and quite vocally articulated and in fact demonstrated that when it comes to the rights of non-citizens, it is unburdened by considerations of procedural due process and the rule of law. :As such, it was imperative that, as the board noted in its judgment, in order to ensure that the required statutory protection regarding speciality was being afforded to the claimant, an arrangement that expressly accorded with the requirements of Section 8.3 of the act was required to have been made between the United States and TT. "While more specific findings will be made in respect of the facts alleged by both parties and in relation to whether any of the several rights claimed that the claimants are alleged to have been breached by the defendant were in fact breached, I find it is sufficient for today's purposes to confine myself to the consideration just outlined that the conduct of the defendant breached the claimant's right to the protection of the law as conceded by the defendant." The post Warner’s extradition case collapses over ‘flawed’ process appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.