The High Court of Trinidad and Tobago has permanently halted extradition proceedings against former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, ruling that the decade-long process violated his constitutional right to liberty in what legal observers are describing as one of the most significant extradition judgments in the country’s recent history.

In a comprehensive 71-page judgment delivered on July 17, Madame Justice Karen Reid found that the extradition proceedings were fundamentally flawed because the Authority to Proceed (ATP) was issued without the legal arrangements required under Trinidad and Tobago’s Extradition (Commonwealth and Foreign Territories) Act, Chap. 12:04, to guarantee Warner’s specialty protections before he could be surrendered to the United States.

Justice Reid ruled that continuing the extradition proceedings under those circumstances constituted a breach of Warner’s constitutional rights.