Johannesburg Court to decide on Manuel Chang’s extradition tomorrow

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Johannesburg Court to decide on Manuel Chang’s extradition tomorrow

4:03 CAT | 09 Nov 2021

File photo: Lusa

Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang will learn tomorrow whether he is to be extradited to Mozambique or to the US, Carta de Moçambique reports.

A note from the South African judiciary which Carta has seen states that “the judgment of the above-mentioned matter will be handed down on Wednesday, November 10, 2021, at 3:00 p.m.”.

Last August, as Chang was packing his bags to leave for Maputo, Mozambique’s Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO) filed an appeal that stopped the return of the former minister to the country.

The FMO suspects that the former government official will not be held accountable if he is extradited to Mozambique. The court will decide whether the FMO’s arguments are still valid.

The political decision made in South Africa had opted for the extradition of Manuel Chang to Maputo.

On August 23, South African Justice Ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri announced that South Africa had decided to extradite former finance minister Manuel Chang to Mozambique. He was detained in South Africa in 2018 at the request of the US on suspicion of fraud and corruption in the ‘hidden debts’ case.

Manuel Chang is accused in the preparatory instruction records registered under No. 1/PGR/2015 and No. 58/GCCC/2017-IP by Mozambique’s Public Prosecutor (PGR), according to the 31-01-2019 judgment of the Supreme Court of Mozambique, which instructed the Mozambican extradition request.

In November, 2020, the PGR also sent an autonomous ‘hidden debts’ case to the Maputo City Court (case 536/11/P/2019) in which it accuses former minister Chang and three other defendants. “Defendant Manuel Chang has been indicted for the commission of crimes of violation of budget legality, passive corruption for an unlawful act, abuse of office or function, association for delinquency, embezzlement and money laundering,” the PGR announced.

The FMO however halted Chang’s extradition to Mozambique by submitting an urgent action asking for a review of the decision of South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola.

FMO lawyer Max du Plessis said that the South African Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, “at the time of his decision, did not have in front of him a valid arrest warrant for the detention of Mr Chang in Mozambique”.

“It is irrational to extradite a wanted person to stand trial for alleged corruption when that person (a) is at risk of escape and (b) is not wanted for arrest under a valid warrant in the requesting state,” du Plessis stressed.

The FMO underlined that the Government of Mozambique “has not provided any legal evidence or argument to justify why the arrest warrant is valid”, adding that “Mozambique, in its response statement, presents another arrest warrant for Mr. Chang”.

“This warrant is dated February 14, 2020. It was issued by the Judicial Court of Maputo City. Mozambique claims that this is a valid arrest warrant for Mr Chang. This warrant was not in front of the minister [Lamola] when he made his decision,” he stressed.

Source: Carta de Moçambique