Former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner will not face extradition to the United States to face bribery charges, a court in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago has ruled.
Warner was accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes to vote for Russia to host the 2018 World Cup, as part of a sweeping, decades-long corruption scandal which involved some of the soccer world's top brass.
While corruption allegations against him date back to the 1980s, he was banned from the sport for life in 2015.
However, he will likely walk free, with the Caribbean nation's top court ruling on Tuesday that it would not comply with the US extradition request. He is not facing any charges at home and has maintained his innocence.
The US Department of Justice argued that Warner had enormous influence as a powerbroker for former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter - who was fully acquitted of fraud by Swiss courts earlier this month - in his role as vice president and as head of the CONCACAF, which organizes soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Warner was part of "two generations of soccer officials" who abused their positions for personal gain, the DOJ claimed. Blatter was cleared earlier this year of corruption charges in Switzerland.
Justice Karen Reid, in an oral hearing, argued that the Trump administration had not respected due process and the rule of law for non-citizens in the US, and as such, she would not send Warner over.
The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two of Warner's sons, Daryll and Daryan, pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme in the US in 2013.
They cooperated with the DOJ probe and a federal court ruled earlier this year that they would not face additional prison time.
