Former finance minister says justice has “awakened” to the case of hidden debts

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Former finance minister says justice has “awakened” to the case of hidden debts

2:30 CAT | 21 Feb 2019

Tomaz Salomão. File photo: RM

Mozambique’s former Finance Minister Tomaz Solomon believes that the arrests over the weekend in Maputo in the so-called hidden debts case show that Mozambican justice has woken up to the case, further arguing that the country should renegotiate with creditors.

“Justice has awakened to the case and done what it should have done,” Tomas Salomão said in an interview with the public radio station Radio Mozambique.

The former minister said that if the Mozambican judicial authorities had acted in a timely manner the US court would not have taken the initiative to request the extradition of former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang and other figures involved in the so-called hidden debts scandal.

Tomaz Salomão pointed out that the illegality that guided the securing of the hidden debts allowed a greater margin of negotiation with the creditors, but said that it was premature to reason that the country should not pay the [interest] charges.

Salomão is currently a member of the Political Commission of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), the party in power, and served as executive secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He has been one of the sternest critics of the hidden debts.

The South African Minister for International Relations and Cooperation told the Daily Maverick yesterday that Manuel Chang would be extradited to Mozambique and not to the United States where he is wanted by US courts.

Manuel Chang will appear in court in South Africa on June 26 on the US extradition request, which accuses the former minister of electronic fraud, computer fraud and money laundering in the course of his participation in the so-called “hidden debts” operation.

Chang was detained in South Africa on December 29 last year as he prepared to embark for Dubai.

Eight people were arrested in Maputo last weekend in the investigation into the more than US$2 billion hidden debts, one of whom has since been released on bail.

Among the detainees are Ndambi Guebuza, son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, the private secretary to the former statesman Ines Moiane and former top members of the Information and Security Services (SISE).

Source: Lusa