Jack Austin Warner (Appellant) v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago (Respondent)

Case summary

Case ID

JCPC/2020/0026

Jurisdiction

Trinidad and Tobago

Parties

Appellant(s)

Jack Austin Warner

Respondent(s)

Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago

Issue

1) Whether the lawfulness of the Extradition (United States of America) Order, 2000 (“the USA Order”), purportedly issued by the Attorney General pursuant to section 4 of the Extradition (Commonwealth and Territories) Act 1985 (“the Act”) should be decided by reference to the Act or the Act as amended by the Extradition. 2) The degree of conformity required to permit an Order to be made under section 4(1) of the Act; 3) Whether the decision of the Attorney General to issue, pursuant to section 9 of the Act, an authority to proceed (“ATP”) in respect of the USA’s request for the extradition of the appellant was in breach of the appellant’s right to procedural fairness; 4) Whether the Attorney General was entitled to rely on a certificate issued pursuant to section 8(5) of the Act dealing with specialty without disclosing the specialty arrangement with the USA

Facts

Mr Warner is a businessman, politician and former Vice President of FIFA. Mr Warner is currently subject to an extradition request made to T&T by the USA on 24 July 2015 in relation wide ranging allegations of criminal conduct stretching back some 30 years.On 21 September 2015, the Attorney General issued (or purported to issue) an ATP pursuant to the USA’s request authorising extradition proceedings against Mr Warner in relation to 29 offences of fraud, corruption and money laundering. Prior to issuing (or purportedly issuing) the ATP, the Attorney General had refused requests from Mr Warner for disclosure of relevant material and to make representations in relation to the ATP. Following an election in T&T, the new Attorney General had then offered to allow Mr Warner to make such representations but only on condition that the deadline set by the Chief Magistrate for receipt of the ATP was extended by consent, a condition to which Mr Warner refused to agree.Mr Warner applied for leave to apply for Judicial Review on 27 November 2015. Permission was granted on 22 January 2016. The Judicial Review claim was dismissed by Aboud J on 27 September 2017 with Mr Warner’s appeal against that decision being dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 11 June 2019. Mr Warner now appeals to Her Majesty in Council with the permission of the Court of Appeal.

Date of issue

23 March 2020

Judgment details

Judgment date

17 November 2022

Neutral citation

[2022] UKPC 43

Judgment links

Appeal

Justices

Lord Hodge

Lord Briggs

Lord Hamblen

Lord Burrows

Sir Declan Morgan

Hearing dates

Full hearing

Start date

27 April 2022

End date

28 April 2022

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