FIFA bribery case: Ex-vice president Hawit extradited to US

BERN, Switzerland — Former FIFA vice president Alfredo Hawit has been extradited to the United States to face bribery charges.

The Swiss justice ministry says Hawit was handed over on Wednesday (Thursday in  Manila) to two American police officers in Zurich who accompanied him on the New York flight.

Hawit, from Honduras, was interim president of the Concacaf regional governing body when he was arrested in Zurich on Dec. 3.

US prosecutors accuse him of accepting bribes totaling millions of dollars linked to the sale of marketing rights to football tournaments in Latin America.

The FIFA ethics committee suspended Hawit for 90 days after his arrest.

Hawit followed Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb as Concacaf presidents indicted in the sprawling US Department of Justice investigation of bribery and corruption in international soccer.