Ex-FIFA official Rocha agrees to extradition to Nicaragua

ZURICH — Former FIFA development officer Julio Rocha, among seven officials arrested in Zurich in May in a corruption scandal that has rocked the world football governing body, has agreed to be extradited to his native Nicaragua, Swiss authorities said.

The US, which has indicted Rocha and 13 other football officials and sports marketing executives on graft charges, has also requested his extradition. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FoJ) said it may have to decide which country gets priority.

Rocha, a former president of his country’s football association (Fenifut), agreed to be extradited at a hearing on Friday following a request from the Nicaraguan government.

“The Nicaraguan criminal prosecution authorities, like their US counterparts, suspect Rocha, a former president of his country’s football federation [Fenifut] of having abused his office for personal gain,” the FoJ said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Friday.

“The FoJ has already approved Rocha’s simplified extradition, albeit subject to the question of priority, which might also be accorded to the US request,” the statement said.

“It will then be for the US authorities to state whether or not they agree to Nicaragua being given priority. If the US authorities do not agree, the issue will be decided by the FoJ.”

Nicaragua’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Thursday that it wanted Rocha extradited “so that he can be tried on the basis of national laws”.

A spokeswomen for the US prosecutors at the attorney’s office of the Eastern District of New York said they had no comment on the Rocha case. Another US official said they were looking into the matter.

The allegations under investigation by US and Swiss authorities cover bribery, fraud and money laundering, including possible corruption in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

The other six arrested in Zurich included Jeffrey Webb, former president of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), who has already been extradited to the US and released on bail.

Webb, a Cayman Islands national, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he solicited bribes from sports marketing companies in exchange for the commercial rights to football matches.

The May arrests took place two days before the FIFA congress where Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term as president. However, four days later the 79-year-old Swiss said he would step down. His replacement will be chosen at an extraordinary congress in Zurich on February 26.

The Swiss announcement on Friday came as prosecutors said US authorities were hopeful that more of those detained in Zurich could soon be extradited to New York.

“We are in discussion with counsel for a number of other defendants overseas and are hopeful we’ll see progress,” prosecutor Evan Norris said during a hearing in Brooklyn federal court in Webb’s case.

Only three of the 14 people indicted in the sweeping investigation of international football and its governing bodies are currently in the US.

Six are in Switzerland, two are in Argentina, one in Brazil, one in Paraguay and one in Trinidad.

The FoJ said it would consider “all relevant factors, including but not limited to the relative seriousness and place of commission of the offences, the respective dates of receipt of the requests, the nationality of the person claimed and the possibility of subsequent extradition to another state”.