Guatemalan police on Tuesday (January 12) arrested fugitive former national soccer federation president Brayan Jimenez in connection with a corruption probe into the sport’s world governing body FIFA.
Police said they detained Jimenez in an apartment building called Torre Sol in an affluent neighbourhood of Guatemala City. He was due to appear in court later on Tuesday to be formally charged.
“As national civil police, we know that we are a fundamental pillar in the fight against corruption and impunity and today we achieved the non-violent arrest in the operation and the units continuously dealt with sensitive information in a hermetic way and as such it helped us facilitate his arrest,” said Stu Velazquez, deputy director of investigation with the Guatemalan national police.
Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office previously said it received an order from the Foreign Ministry to proceed with the extradition of Jimenez to the United States once apprehended and had released an arrest warrant for him.
Jimenez has been accused of taking bribes along with Hector Trujillo, former secretary general of the Guatemalan soccer federation, who was arrested last month in the United States.
Jimenez’s attorney told reporters at the courthouse, where he waited with the former soccer official before a court appearance, he was on board with bringing the case to the United States.
“We are not going to fight the extradition, in fact, we are going to accept Article 4 of the extradition law and voluntarily accept the extradition and once we do that we don’t need the 40 day period that the U.S. has for presenting the evidence. By doing this there is no need to present that evidence. The file will be sent to the secretariat of the Supreme Court of Justice so that the foreign relations ministry can notify the American Embassy about the voluntary extradition, and that there is no opposition,” defence attorney Francisco Garcia said.
Jimenez’s appearance was dramatically different than the last time he was seen by the media at a news conference in December, when he had black hair and a shaven face. On Tuesday, he had white hair, moustache and beard.
Dozens of soccer officials have been charged by U.S. authorities probing corruption in FIFA, in an investigation that has sent shockwaves across the soccer world. (Reuters)
