By Andrew Warshaw
July 25 – Disgraced former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has agreed to pay Trinidad $375,000 (US$56,000) to a fellow Caribbean politician to end a long-running local feud unconnected with the widespread bribery allegations hanging over him.
The former CONCACAF boss, who is still fighting extradition to the United States, has agreed on an out of court settlement with one-time colleague, Suruj Rambachan, to settle a defamation lawsuit. Rambachan said in a statement the settlement represents damages, interest, and costs.
In the lawsuit, Rambachan, who like Warner had served in the cabinet of the then coalition People’s Partnership government, claimed that Warner had made “malicious, reckless and irresponsible” statements against him while speaking at a public political meeting of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) on July 23, 2013.
The order of the court “vindicates my position that the many statements made by Mr. Warner in the public domain seeking to defame my character and that of my family were all entirely untrue,” Rambachan said.
He said when he initiated the legal action “my motivation was to send a message to Mr. Warner and other persons who make reckless, irresponsible and untrue statements that there is a price to pay for those unlawful actions. No amount of damages could ever compensate for the damage to one’s reputation that one has spent a lifetime to build. This is especially so where the majority of my life has been devoted to public service.”
Warner, in a typically bullish response, dismissed the case as “a legal distraction” which would now allow him to concentrate on fighting a dozen charges related to fraud and racketeering and battling against extradition from his native Trinidad and Tobago.
“I don’t want myself to be distracted by these petty issues and have it go on for another three years,” said Warner, banned from all football by the FIFA ethics committee as well as being one of those indicted by the United States Justice Department.
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