In a police action taken in the Baur au Lac, same hotel in Zurich where executives FIFA were arrested on May 27 on corruption charges (including the former president of the CBF José Maria Marin), the presidents of Conmebol, Juan Ángel Napout, and CONCACAF, Alfredo Hawit, were arrested on the morning of Thursday, around 6 am local time. The operation was carried out in compliance with a request from the United States Department of Justice, working in cooperation with the Federal Court of Switzerland (FOJ, its acronym in English).
In a statement, the Swiss Justice confirmed the arrests of Napout and Hawit, stating that both opposed to being extradited to the United States - from which the requests for arrest. The Swiss Justice will ask the US to formalize the extradition request within 40 days.
New police operation at the hotel Baur Au Lac resulted in two arrests (Photo: AFP)
Hawit, 64, temporarily assumed the Confederation of North Americas and the Caribbean after Jeffrey Webb, then president, was arrested in May operation. Among those arrested on May 27, Webb was the first to agree to the extradition to the United States, which now accounts process in freedom, but guarded 24 hours by the FBI (the American Federal Police). Already Napout, 57, replaced the South American Confederation Uruguayan Eugenio Figueiredo, also arrested in the middle of the year. Reportedly still unofficial, new arrests may occur at any time.
FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, on the morning of Thursday (Photo: Vicente Seda)
Statement on the operation by the GloboEsporte.com report, the vice president of the CBF, Fernando Sarney, said his schedule was maintained, and already in the FIFA headquarters for the second day of the meeting of the Executive Committee of the entity. The Brazilian leader has return to Brazil already planned for the night of Thursday.Son of former president José Sarney, Fernando was appointed by Conmebol to replace Marco Polo Del Nero on the Executive Committee.Since the arrests of the leaders in May, Del Nero lacked all group meetings in Zurich. The day after the arrests, he left the Swiss city hastily on the eve of the presidential election.
Aware of the incident, the entity that governs world football spoke shortly after the arrests made this morning: - FIFA has taken note of the actions taken today (Thursday) by the US Department of Justice. FIFA will continue to fully cooperate with the US investigation, as permitted by Justice Switzerland, as well as the investigation being conducted by the Attorney General of Switzerland. The media department of FIFA confirmed that the conference scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday is maintained and should start at 11:30 GMT. The Executive Committee should vote on Thursday the points of structural reform of the entity.
Open to the media during the week, the Baur au Lac was immediately closed after the action together of Swiss and American police, vetoing the entry of journalists that calculate the outside of the hotel information. With a request for increased security to the site, the administration banned the presence of media professionals in the driveway of the property. In recent days, Napout and the other members of the Executive Committee showed very quiet, playing, smiling and talking to journalists in the lobby hotel without any restriction. The report of the GloboEsporte.com talked to the leader of the Conmebol late on Wednesday, before the exit of the committee members for an official dinner. Napout gave no sign of concern about the possibility of a new police operation.
Press in place in the hotel door in Zurich (Photo: AP)
On 26 November, after a meeting of the Executive Committee of CONMEBOL held at the CBF headquarters Napout said in an exclusive interview with GloboEsporte.com, would not resign from his post, that information came to circulate in South American vehicles. Asked about the arrest of his two predecessors in office, Nicolas Leoz, who is under house arrest in Asuncion, Paraguay, and Eugenio Figueiredo, who is trapped in Zurich and appeals against the extradition already authorized by the FOJ, Napout said - Problems They are individual. Football I can assure you that will continue. Football is a good thing, it is a necessity, is the world's best show by far. I know that nowadays [CONMEBOL] has no prestige. In fact I do is work and show. I prefer to work than to talk. You will judge my work.
Correction: contrary to what was initially published, only two officers were arrested - Juan Ángel Napout, president of CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, Alfredo Hawit - linked to FIFA and not 12. The New York Times reported that 12 names can be targeted of indictment by the authorities.
