FIFA suspect agrees to be extradited to the US
July 10, 2015
A statement released by Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) on Friday, confirmed that one of the suspects had agreed to be extradited, but declined to identify the individual as he "wished not to be named at the moment."
The suspect's agreeing not to legally challenge his extradition means that he can be extradited as soon as US police officers arrive in Switzerland to escort him on a flight to the United States. Under Swiss law, this must be completed within the next 10 days.
"The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York accuses him of accepting bribes totaling millions of dollars in connection with the sale of marketing rights to various sports marketing firms and keeping the money for himself," the FOJ statement said.
"The marketing rights in question pertain to the broadcast of qualifying matches for the soccer World Cup, regional soccer tournaments and continental soccer championships in North and South America," the statement said.
All seven suspects are from South America or FIFA's CONCACAF zone, which takes in North and Central America as well as the Caribbean.
Last week, US prosecutors formally filed extradition requests for the seven suspects, who were arrested in a dawn raid on a luxury hotel in Zurich on May 27, a day before FIFA's annual conference opened in the Swiss city. Delegates reelected FIFA President Sepp Blatter at that conference despite the arrests and a separate Swiss inquiry into alleged wrongdoing involving officials at soccer's world governing body.
Four days later, Blatter, 79, announced his intention to resign, but didn't actually do so, and there has been speculation that he could seek reelection at an extraordinary FIFA conference sometime in the next few months.
Key witness banned
Friday's news came a day after FIFA handed down a lifetime ban to Chuck Blazer, another central figure in the corruption scandal. Blazer, a former general secretary of CONCACAF and member of FIFA's powerful Executive Committee, has been cooperating with US investigators since 2011, when he secretly cut a deal with and secretly pleaded guilty to a series of charges, including racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering.
Before his cooperation became public, Blazer even wore a wire to record conversations with other FIFA officials, as a way of gathering incriminating evidence.
Meanwhile, Blatter who has not been implicated in either enquiry has again denied any involvement in corruption.
"I bear no responsibility for members of a government (the Executive Committee) I have not myself elected. The FIFA president must work with the people allotted him by the confederations. I therefore also bear no responsibility whatsoever for the behavior of these ExCo members on their home turf," he wrote in his column in the in-house publication FIFA Weekly on Friday.
pfd/kms (AFP, dpa, AP, Reuters)