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Fifa corruption arrests: Jack Warner leaves jail in an ambulance after complaining of exhaustion

Warner is alleged to have received $10m in three payments from an unidentified high-ranking Fifa official

Jack de Menezes
Friday 29 May 2015 10:23 BST
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Disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner
Disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner

Disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner left a Trinidad jail on Thursday in an ambulance after complaining of exhaustion.

The former president of Concacaf was charged on Wednesday in a United States FBI corruption case, which has led to the arrest of 14 current and ex-Fifa members worldwide, including Warner, as well as seven members in Zurich ahead of today’s Fifa Congress meeting.

Judicial officer Ibrahim Ali confirmed that Warner had complained of exhaustion and was not able to face questions aimed at him by reporters who had been gathered for several hours outside of the Trinidad jail where he was being held.

The 75-year-old was able to recover sufficiently a short time later to give a speech to question why he had been arrested.

"If I have been thieving FIFA money for 30 years, who give me the money?” asked Warner. “How come he is not charged? Why only persons from Third World countries have been charged?”

Warner responded to the Fifa arrests on Facebook

Warner’s address, which came with him wearing a cap and a garland of flowers, received a raucous reception from a partisan crowd that is in support of Warner due to his Independent Liberal Party connections and their opposition to the current Parliament.

Warner was forced out of Fifa in 2011 after being exposed in a bribery scandal, but he has continued to deny any wrongdoing. Following the arrests in Zurich, Warner turned himself in to authorities on Wednesday and was granted a $395,000 (£258,300) bail, although he spent the night in jail. Warner faces eight counts in the United States including conspiracy to defraud and engage in racketeering, and a judge ordered him to surrender his passport and report to police twice a week.

Warner has not entered a plea and is expected to appear in court in Trinidad in July.

Warner was forced out of Fifa in 2011 due to allegations of corruption

Garvin Nicholas, Trinidad’s attorney general, has said that the US has two months to issue a formal extradition request, and added that his office has been investigating Warner along with the US Justice Department for nearly two years.

The US Justice Department allege that Warner received three payments totalling $10m in 2008 from an unidentified high-ranking Fifa official. It’s also alleged that the money was transferred to a US bank account controlled by Warner to secure Warner’s vote to back the South African bid for the 2010 World Cup. South Africa’s sports minister denied any wrongdoing involving his country.

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