(Trinidad Express) Instead of facing the music and answering to allegations of bribery, National Security Minister Jack Warner resigned as FIFA vice president and now he is trying to claim vindication by “piggy backing” on Mohamed bin Hammam, the former president of the Asian Football Confederation.
This is the opinion of Opposition Senator Fitzgerald Hinds who said yesterday: “He (Warner) is looking for a way out, when he had the opportunity to face his accusers and answer the prima facie case that was found against him and the same bin Hammam before the FIFA Disciplinary Committee, rather than face his accusers and vindicate himself, he chose to abandon his job as vice president and all the other trappings of that position. He turned tail and ran back to Trinidad and Tobago,” said Hinds.
Warner and Bin Hammam (who had challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA Presidency), were accused of giving bribes of US$40,000 to delegates of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) last year in Trinidad.
Bin Hammam’s lifetime ban was yesterday annulled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
However, the court stressed that Bin Hammam had not been found innocent of providing the cash for TT$40,000 payments to the CFU delegates.
According to Hinds, “He (Warner) never took the opportunity to face his accusers and answer the charges…so now he’s here on the periphery, trying to piggyback on Bin Hammam’s judgment telling us he feels vindicated.”
“What he (Warner) did not tell us is that FIFA was very clear that this finding on Bin Hammam is not the end of the story and it does not establish the innocence of Mr Bin Hammam in any way but because of certain evidential difficulties they came to this conclusion for the time being,” said Hinds.
Hinds noted that in May this year Warner had said he felt vindicated when correspondence from the Police Service Commission to Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley revealed that Commissioner of Police Dwayne Gibbs had informed the PSC by letter that no further action can be taken with respect to a probe into Warner over the same allegations of bribery.
Hinds noted further that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Roger Gaspard, had intervened saying he said no such thing and had directed an investigation to possible breaches of the Customs Act.
“In addition to this there was a newspaper report about four months ago that the FBI were here conducting an investigation into that same bribery scandal and only two days ago Concacaf put itself before the IRS in the United States to account for tax matters and Mr Jack Warner was a senior operator and member of Concacaf and therefore that business with the IRS is no doubt still unfinished,” said Hinds.
“I want to say to Mr Warner while I know he is keen on the use of the word vindicated it is my suspicion that we have not heard the last of this. and I have a feeling that one day those of us in Trinidad and Tobago who felt he should have never been a Cabinet Minister and moreso the Minister of National Security, that one day we will be vindicated,” said Hinds.
