Mozambique to appeal to SA’s Supreme Court of Appeal in Chang case – lawyer

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Mozambique to appeal to SA’s Supreme Court of Appeal in Chang case – lawyer

8:54 CAT | 28 Jul 2022

File photo: AFP

Mozambique’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) intends to appeal against the decision by South Africa’s High Court [on Wednesday] denying Maputo the right to appeal against the extradition of Mozambique’s former finance minister, Manuel Chang, to the US.

“I confirm that the Republic of Mozambique will file an application to the Supreme Court of Appeal [SCA] in this matter”, declared lawyer Busani Mabunda in response to a request for written clarification from Lusa.

The South African lawyer, who represents the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) of Mozambique in South Africa in the case of the extradition of the former Mozambican minister, concluded: “The case is far from the end of litigation. It may end at the Constitutional Court, for that court never considered its merits”.

READ: JUST IN: Manuel Chang’s extradition awaits court decision – South African government

Mozambique: South Africa clarifies that High Court to rule again in Chang case

The High Court of South Africa, Gauteng division, this Wednesday (27 July 2022) dismissed the Mozambican government’s application for leave to appeal against the court’s decision that Manuel Chang should be extradited to the US to face corruption charges., paving the way for the extradition of former Finance Minister to the United States (USA).

High Court judge Margaret Victor, who in November 2021 had ordered South Africa to extradite Manuel Chang to the US, considered on her judgement on Wednesday that the Mozambique PGR had offered “no compelling reasons” why it should be granted leave to appeal.

READ: Just in: South Africa’s High Court rejects appeal in Manuel Chang case – Daily Maverick

Hidden debts: Chang nearer to extradition – AIM report

On December 15, 2021, the Constitutional Court of South Africa had also rejected another application by the Mozambican PGR, at costs to the Mozambican Government, indicating that “it was not in the interests of Justice to hear the case at that stage”.

The United States and Mozambique, which submitted a competitive request, have been seeking the extradition of the former Mozambican finance minister since 2018.

The Government of the African National Congress (ANC), in power since 1994 in South Africa, an ally of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), in power in Mozambique since 1974, twice tried to extradite the former ruler to his country, in May 2019 and August 2021.

Chang was detained on 29 December 2018 by the South African Police Service (SAPS) at the request of the US at Johannesburg International Airport, where he was en route to Dubai, on suspicion of money laundering and financial fraud. He is being held at Modderbee Prison in Benoni, east of Johannesburg.

The former finance minister of Mozambique is seen as a key player in the $2.2 billion (€2.15 billion at current exchange rates) in the ‘hidden debts’ contracted by public enterprises between 2013 and 2014, without the knowledge of parliament or other creditors, as he signed the state guarantees for them on behalf of the government led by the then president, Armando Guebuza.

The loans taken out from Credit Suisse and Russian bank VTB, with the help of the Privinvest group, were supposedly to fund maritime projects to be undertaken by public enterprises Ematum, ProIndicus and MAM, but these never materialised.

In addition to criminal proceedings taking place in Mozambique regarding the hidden debts, the case is also the target of the US justice system, where prosecutors are seeking to try Chang in an alleged multi-million-dollar international swindle.

Source: Lusa