... High Court halts Warner’s decade-old US extradition battle;
says his constitutional rights were breached
The judgment noted that Attorney General John Jeremie, after taking office in 2025, conducted an extensive internal investigation and acknowledged that the Office of the Attorney General had failed in its duty of candor by not correcting the courts’ misunderstanding regarding the existence of a bespoke specialty arrangement. Justice Reid found that the continued extradition proceedings after those misrepresentations had been made could not be allowed to continue and ordered that they be permanently stayed.
Speaking to Guardian Media shortly after the ruling, Warner welcomed the decision but said the decade-long ordeal had taken an enormous personal and financial toll. “I’m happy with the judgment but I’m still a bitter person because my life has been destroyed, my businesses have gone through the roof, my family has been put to shame and this hasn’t been fair to me for 10 years. Worst yet, the money I have spent in legal fees is insurmountable, so in a sense I’m happy, but I’m sad that I had to go through all of this to be freed,” Warner said.
Warner said he now hopes the damages phase of the proceedings will provide some measure of compensation for what he believes he has lost. “September 30 is the big day because I have been stripped of everything over the last 10 years. I’ve moved from hero to zero, and therefore I sincerely hope that the Government will be able to, in some way, justify financially what I have gone through. They can’t replace it but hopefully they can somehow justify it.”Guardian Media reached out to Garvin Nicholas, who was attorney general at the time the extradition proceedings began, former attorney general Faris al-Rawi, who took over the reins in September 2015, and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. However, there was no comment from either of them up to press time.
Guardian Media also sent questions to the US Embassy in T&T and is awaiting their response.