PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – A High Court judge Friday dismissed an application by the United States government to intervene in the judicial review lawsuit filed by former FIFA vice president Austin Jack Warner challenging the decision of the Attorney General to sign off on a document to have him extradited to the United States.

In his ruling Justice James Aboud questioned the contribution Washington could have made to the proceedings before him, noting that to allow the US intervention would set a precedent which could see school principals and business people from having a say on the number of public holidays.

Warner, 72, was released on TT$2.5 million (One TT dollar =US$0.16) bail when he made his first court appearance on May 27 last year.

He is charged with 12 offences related to racketeering, corruption and money laundering allegedly committed in the jurisdiction of the United States and Trinidad and Tobago, dating as far back as 1990.

Warner, in his claim, is questioning the procedure adopted by the Office of the Attorney General in signing off on the US’s request for his extradition made in May, last year, at the end of the US Department of Justice’s investigation into the world governing football body.

He is facing fraud and money-laundering charges related to his two decades as a FIFA vice-president.

Warner’s attorneys are alleging that this country’s extradition treaty with the US contradicts the Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act. They are claiming that, in passing the act, Parliament afforded citizens certain protections which are ignored by the international treaty.

He is also complaining that Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi failed to give his attorneys a fair opportunity to make representations to him before he signed off on the Authority to Proceed, which was required to kick off the proceedings before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar.

Shortly after taking over the case from his predecessor Garvin Nicholas in September, last year, Al-Rawi extended the option to Warner. However, his attorneys allegedly refused as they said it was made a day before Al-Rawi was required to approve the extradition.

The US government had sought to be an interest party in the hearing of the judicial review, claiming that d it should be granted permission to be heard as it had sufficient interest in the proceedings to be heard.

But Justice Aboud in his oral ruling asked: “What can it say differently from the AG? It cannot be to say the same thing differently.

“Is the AG’s position different from the US? Does the AG want the US to say something he won’t say? It must be able to offer something more than repetition,” Justice Aboud added.

He said to allow the US intervention would set a precedent which could see school principals and business people having a say on the number of public holidays.

Justice Aboud noted it was self-evident that the outcome of the judicial review proceedings before him may affect and impact the United States’ status as a foreign territory, under the local Extradition Act and may nullify Warner’s extradition proceedings in the magistrates court as well as future extraditions to the US.

But he said that country’s involvement in the case before him won’t bring a different perspective to the arguments which are solely based on domestic law.

As he left the court, Warner, a former senior government minister in the former People’s Partnership government of Kamla Persad Bissessar, said that Trinidad and Tobago’s sovereignty as a small nation must be maintained

He said he has the highest respect for the justice system of the country and that it was “ironic but long overdue” that the US has to pay him after the judge ordered that the US pay Warner’s legal costs in the failed application. .

Earlier this year, Justice Aboud granted Warner a stay of his ongoing extradition proceedings currently before the lower courts, which will expire after Aboud decides on the legality and constitutionality of his extradition.