News Americas, LONDON, England, Weds. July 1, 2015: Former FIFA vice-president and Trinidad minister of government, Jack Warner, has hired a top British attorney to fight extradition to the United States.
British-born Edward Fitzgerald, QC, has confirmed he is Warner’s new attorney. Fitzgerald, specializes in criminal law, public law and international human rights law and is currently the joint head of Doughty Street Chambers along with partner Geoffrey Robertson, QC.
In the past, he has also represented Trinidad businessman Steve Ferguson, who has successfully resisted extradition to the USA for the last 10 years. In 2006, a grand jury in Florida indicted Ferguson and six U.S. businessmen for alleged corrupt practices concerning airport terminal construction contracts in the Caribbean oil and gas producing nation. He has waged a legal battle against extradition to the US, with Fitzgerald arguing that Ferguson was already facing criminal proceedings in Trinidad over the Piarco airport scandal and should not be tried in the United States.
Fitzgerald has also represented controversial Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, the Egyptian cleric who was the imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in London, England, where he preached Islamic fundamentalism and militant Islamism as well as Myra Hindley, the second half of the ‘Moors Murder’ team; Mary Bell, a child killer; Maxine Carr; Jon Venables, one of James Bulger’s killers and various IRA prisoners.
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted.
Fitzgerald has been called to the Bar in a number of jurisdictions including across the Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago as well as in Belize, Grenada and St Vincent. He is a top most cited barrister in the UK press and in June 2008 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list.
Warner has been indicted by the US justice department on eight counts of football-related corruption and is currently on bail in Trinidad. He is accused of taking a $10m (£6.5m) bribe to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.
The US embassy in Port-of-Spain has said no final extradition request has so far been made to the Trinidad and Tobago attorney general.
“The US Department of Justice has not yet sent any final requests on the Jack Warner extradition request to the T&T authorities,” a Twitter post also noted.
