Former South American Football Confederation president Juan Angel Napout, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence in the United States following the corruption scandal known as Fifagate, will benefit from a “release compassionate,” his family announced Thursday.
The 65-year-old former leader with eye problems will be released from a Miami prison on Wednesday under a decision by a New York judge. He was supposed to be incarcerated until August 24, 2024 according to the sentence handed down by a New York court.
“US Judge Pamela Chen has ordered that the sentence be considered served on July 5,” the former leader’s sister, Virginia Napout, told reporters in Asuncion.
According to his lawyers, Napout lost one eye to illness while incarcerated and is at risk of losing the other. His defenders have demanded that he undergo surgery or, failing that, that he be given “compassionate release” so that he can seek treatment in Paraguay.
Last week, Victoria Napout told the press that her brother had been “taken to hospital for the fourth time, but only for examinations”. “(He) is going blind and if we don’t operate he will go blind in prison, away from us. It is a basic violation of his human rights,” she said.
During an appearance before the judge on June 22 by videoconference, Juan Angel Napout had asked to be operated on. The Paraguayan was sentenced for receiving ten million dollars in bribes in exchange for the granting of television broadcasting rights to football matches. He was arrested in Switzerland on December 3, 2015, then extradited to the United States and placed under house arrest in Florida until his trial in 2018. Twenty leaders were tried in the context of Fifagate, which shook football from of 2015.