Updated 07:30 AM EDT, Fri, Apr 19, 2024

FIFA Scandal: Ecuador Demands the Arrest of Its Soccer Federation Head Luis Chiriboga

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Amid the scandal haunting the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), Ecuador ordered the arrest of the country's football federation president, Luis Chiriboga on Saturday.

Tribune said the decision came days after US officials revealed that Chiriboga is one of the 16 charged in a multi-million dollar corruption scheme.

On Friday, Chiriboga, along with two other charged federation officials, turned himself in in his home country.

 "I have come voluntarily to cooperate with the prosecution," Chiriboga said in a Sport 24 report.

Ecuador's FIFA president was ordered to be kept under house arrest since he is already over 65 years old.

Chiriboga, as per Tribune, has already been suspended from his post with lawyer Lucia Vallecilla saying that the case of his client will be reviewed by prosecutors for 90 days to look into "the finances of the federation as part of their investigation."

This is said to be the same timeframe that Ecuador's FIFA president could spend in jail while the investigation is ongoing.

"Ecuador does not permit the extradition of its citizens, but it assumes responsibility for investigating crimes, including those that Ecuadorans may commit abroad, to prosecute them here," another lawyer, Galo Chiriboga, (no relation to the FIFA official) told Sport 24.

Last week, 16 other officials of FIFA were charged, in line with the corruption allegations, by US authorities after the arrest of two high-ranking officials -- Alfredo Hawit and Juan Angel Napout -- were made, BBC reported.

It added that among those charged for "criminal schemes involving well over $200m (£132m) in bribes and kickbacks" are former Brazil federation heads, Ricardo Teixeira, Ariel Alvarado, Rafael Callejas, Brayan Jimenez, Rafael Salguero, Hector Trujillo, Reynaldo Vasquez, Manuel Burga, Carlos Chavez, Marco Polo del Nero, Eduardo Deluca, Jose Luis Meiszner and Romer Osuna.

With the arrests, US Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, said the betrayal of trust was "outrageous."

"The scale of corruption alleged herein is unconscionable. And the message from this announcement should be clear to every culpable individual who remains in the shadows, hoping to evade our investigation: you will not wait us out; you will not escape our focus," Lynch said in the BBC report.

Meanwhile, CNN said the charges filed prove that the corruption probe is causing a lot of problems for FIFA.

In a statement quoted by CNN, FIFA said they already knew of the arrests made of its two officials.

"FIFA will continue to cooperate fully with the U.S. investigation as permitted by Swiss law, as well as with the investigation being led by the Swiss Office of the Attorney General. FIFA will have no further comment on today's developments," the statement furthered.

  

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