Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar, in a de­c­la­ra­tion of sup­port for Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er, yes­ter­day vowed to stand by the FI­FA vice-pres­i­dent even as the Ethics Com­mit­tee of the world's gov­ern­ing body of foot­ball is­sued a pro­vi­sion­al sus­pen­sion of his du­ties yes­ter­day. Per­sad-Bisses­sar, ad­dress­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence last night in Debe, said: "I will not pre­judge the al­le­ga­tions against Min­is­ter Warn­er, and un­til there is ev­i­dence to the con­trary, I stand by him." Yes­ter­day, Fi­fa's ethics com­mi­tee, meet­ing in Zurich, Switzer­land, is­sued a pro­vi­sion­al sus­pen­sion ban­ning Warn­er, the Fi­fa vice-pres­i­dent and CON­CA­CAF pres­i­dent, from con­duct­ing any foot­ball busi­ness, pend­ing the out­come of a full in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to bribery al­le­ga­tions lev­elled against him.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said: "At this time, there is no rea­son for me to ar­rive at any con­clu­sion re­gard­ing the al­le­ga­tions made against Mr Warn­er." While she ad­mit­ted that, like all cit­i­zens, she too was "con­cerned by the al­le­ga­tions," the Prime Min­is­ter said Warn­er as­sured in an e-mail that he would up­date her on the mat­ter when he re­turned to Trinidad to­mor­row. The Prime Min­is­ter al­so de­nied ru­mours that the Works Min­is­ter had of­fered to ten­der his res­ig­na­tion in light of the sus­pen­sion. Asked by re­porters if Warn­er were to be found guilty by the full FI­FA in­ves­ti­ga­tions what would be the Gov­ern­ment's next move, Per­sad Bisses­sar said: "It is in­ap­pro­pri­ate for me to spec­u­late." The Prime Min­is­ter was in high praise of Warn­er whom she de­scribed as "a son of our soil" who served this na­tion faith­ful­ly at that very foot­ball or­gan­i­sa­tion and who was in­stru­men­tal in lead­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go to its very first World Cup qual­i­fi­ca­tion just a few years ago."

She said he "must be al­lowed every op­por­tu­ni­ty to present his case against the al­le­ga­tions made about him." The de­ci­sion by FI­FA to ini­ti­ate a pro­vi­sion­al sus­pen­sion against Warn­er, pend­ing an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, Per­sad Bisses­sar said, "is not a de­ter­mi­na­tion of guilt, but part of a process that we trust will be fair and un­prej­u­diced. "A pro­vi­sion­al sus­pen­sion is not to be equat­ed with a find­ing of guilt, far less a sen­tence based on a find­ing of wrong­do­ing," she said. Un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion, it was a "fun­da­men­tal tenet," the Prime Min­is­ter said, that "a man is in­no­cent un­til proven guilty." She said: "It would be un­for­tu­nate if we made pre­ma­ture ad­verse judg­ment and pro­nounce­ment on a mat­ter that is un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion. This would be con­trary to the spir­it and let­ter of the laws of our land."