FILE - In this July 23, 2011 file photo, FIFA President Sepp Blatter, left, and CONMEBOL President Nicolas Leoz, right, stand on the pitch before the start of the Copa America third-place soccer match between Venezuela and Peru in La Plata, Argentina. Loez's lawyer said Thursday, July 23, 2015, that U.S. prosecutors in New York have asked Paraguay to extradite the former president of South America's soccer confederation and one of those charged in a corruption scandal being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File) (The Associated Press)
ASUCION, Paraguay – U.S. prosecutors in New York have asked Paraguay to extradite Nicolas Leoz, the former president of South America's soccer confederation and one of those charged in a corruption scandal being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department.
The 86-year-old Leoz is being held under house arrest in the Paraguayan capital, Asuncion.
His lawyer, Ricardo Preda, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Leoz has been informed that Paraguay's "foreign ministry has received the request from the U.S. Embassy and has sent it to the Supreme Court."
Leoz was president of the South American confederation, known as CONMEBOL, from 1986 to 2013. He was also a former member of the executive committee of FIFA, international soccer's governing body.
The U.S. Justice Department has indicted 14 soccer officials and businessmen on charges of bribery, racketeering, and money laundering, among them Leoz. He was not in Geneva in May when seven FIFA executives were arrested by Swiss police, but he was later detained by authorities in Paraguay.
Paraguay subsequently signed a law repealing the immunity that CONMEBOL's headquarters enjoyed for nearly two decades.
Leoz has said he is innocent and plans to fight extradition to the U.S.
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