Interpol has issued a red flag, or “wanted,” notice for former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, government spokesman Andrew Johnson confirmed yesterday.
Johnson addressed the issue at a media briefing yesterday where Government emphasised it had nothing to do with the US Justice Department’s indictment of Warner.
According to international reports, Interpol—the international policing organisation—issued the “red notices” or international wanted persons alert for six men with ties to Fifa, including Warner and Nicolás Leoz, as well as four sports marketing executives for charges including racketeering conspiracy and corruption.
In all, 14 current and former Fifa officials and other corporate executives were charged by the US Department of Justice last week, with American and Swiss authorities making seven arrests following a dawn raid in Zurich on Wednesday.
Warner is out on $2.5 million bail after appearing in court on the charges last week, while Leoz, of Paraguay, is under house arrest in his country after also appearing in court.
An Interpol statement confirmed the red notices were issued on the request of US authorities.
The Interpol “red notice” means the accused risk arrest anywhere they travel.
In distancing Government from the US moves yesterday, Johnson said Warner was seeking to make a link but there was none.
On Warner’s claim that the Prime Minister “was trying to put him in jail,” Johnson said, “Nothing is further from the truth. At no stage of the game did the political administration have anything to do with this matter; that would be inappropriate and irregular.
“It’s patently false to make a link between what has occurred with him and the Government...it has nothing to do with proximity to elections or his estrangement from the Government. The indictment is based on the US authorities’ investigations...the people at the centre of this are the US authorities and the US Attorney General.”
He said Warner’s extradition issue was the result of the treaties on such issues between the US and T&T and Warner was not being treated differently from anyone else. He noted that five other T&T citizens had been extradited to the US in recent months. He said Warner was held in high regard by a lot of people and “no one took pleasure or pride in what was occurring with him.”
On Warner’s claims that he’d already been “jailed,” Johnson said that was true when one was sentenced but Warner had spent one night in detention due to bail issues only. Johnson said Warner’s charges were not a “gift” for Government and he couldn’t say how the situation would play out in election platform statements.
He said it was expected Warner might challenge the extradition request.