US jury acquits former Peru soccer chief in FIFA bribery case

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Former Peru soccer chief Manuel Burga was acquitted of a corruption charge by a US jury on Tuesday, while two convicted co-defendants await sentencing.

60-year-old Manuel Burga, former Peru soccer federation president and an ex-FIFA development committee member, was cleared on one count of racketeering conspiracy on the seventh day of deliberations in New York.

Burga was charged along with Juan Angel Napout, the former president of the South American soccer governing body CONMEBOL and Paraguay's soccer federation, and Jose Maria Marin, former president of Brazil's soccer federation, with taking bribes in exchange for the award of valuable marketing and media rights to international soccer matches.

The three men were the first to stand trial on charges brought by US prosecutors in 2015 as part of investigations of world soccer's governing body FIFA.

Napout and Marin were both convicted on several counts on Friday, following a five-week trial in federal court in Brooklyn. The jury said at the time it was deadlocked on the single count against Burga.

Former president of Peruvian Football Federation Manuel Burga, one of three defendants in the FIFA corruption trial, leaves the United States Federal Court in New York, December 22, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Extradited to the United States from Peru in 2016, he is now due to be reunited with his family in Lima on Wednesday.

"I am returning to my country, I have lots to do there. I have no feelings of vengeance or revenge," Burga said as he left the federal court house in Brooklyn, in comments broadcast by Peruvian television.

"From now on, I am only looking ahead," he added.

Right result

Burga's lawyer Bruce Udolf said his client was "thrilled to be able [to] see his family after two years of this ordeal," thanking the jury for reaching "the right result."

Former president of Peruvian Football Federation Manuel Burga (R), one of three defendants in the FIFA corruption trial, walks outside the United States Federal Court in New York, December 26, 2017. /Reuters Photo

At trial, prosecutors accused Burga of intimidating a key witness, Alejandro Burzaco, by twice drawing a finger across his neck in a throat-slashing gesture while the Argentine – who himself pleaded guilty – testified.

Udolf said his client had scratched his neck, but District Judge Pamela Chen thought otherwise and on November 15 restricted his phone and computer access.

The trial lifted the lid on the life of privilege, luxury and excess enjoyed by members of FIFA's executive committee – of personal chauffeurs, private jets and "presidential treatment," luxury hotels, meetings in idyllic resorts in the Bahamas or Mauritius, and even cruises on the Danube for wives, children and grandchildren.

The government amassed 30 million pages of evidence and said Marin, 85, and Napout, 59, were blinded by greed into accepting more than 17 million US dollars in bribes.

The formerly powerful pair were taken into custody on Friday and face at least 10 years in prison.

They "have been brought to justice, like the others who have been convicted for corrupting a sport beloved across the world, and will face punishment for their criminal conduct," said acting US attorney Bridget Rohde on Tuesday.

"The guilty verdicts and the evidence at trial highlight the extent of the corruption and the continuing need for reform," she added.

There is currently no date for their sentencing and their lawyers have vowed to fight to absolve the pair.

Twenty-four of the 42 individuals indicted in May 2015 have cut deals in return for guilty pleas – two of whom have already been sentenced by Chen.

Another 15 remain in their own countries, including Brazilian football confederation president Marco Polo Del Nero, who was this month banned from soccer for 90 days.

Source(s): AFP ,Reuters