Prosecutor calls for further investigations into bribery

The chief prosecutor in Trinidad has declared that further investigations may be needed into how around $1million was brought into the country and paid to Caribbean football officials last year.

Fifa presidential candidate Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned for life for bribery, and Trinidad's Fifa vice-president Jack Warner resigned, after revelations that payments of 40,000 US dollars in brown envelopes were handed over to officials from 25 nations.

Roger Gaspard, Trinidad's director of public prosecution (DPP), said police had provided insufficient information to allow any charges to be brought against Warner, who is the country's deputy prime minister.

Gaspard told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that he had informed the police that based on the "threadbare information and material" given to him he could not determine that any law was broken.

He added: "I have not cleared anybody in this matter. Neither have I cleared any police officer to bring the investigations to an end."

Gaspard said in a written memo to the investigating police officer, quoted by CMC: "There is nothing in it for me to suggest or to see any contravention of the laws of Trinidad and Tobago, that could mean that you need to go further with the investigation because what they supplied to me was insufficient.

"However I am also of the view that further investigations may be warranted pursuant to the Customs Act [that deals with the non declaration of a significant money into the country]."

Bin Hammam has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against his lifetime ban and a decision is expected next month.

PA