South Africa awaiting Interpol orders to extradite Manuel Chang to US

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South Africa awaiting Interpol orders to extradite Manuel Chang to US

8:56 CAT | 25 May 2023

Image: Lusa

The South African government is awaiting instructions from the international criminal police organisation (Interpol) to extradite Mozambique’s former finance minister Manuel Chang to the United States, a ministerial source told Lusa on Thursday.

“We have taken note of the Constitutional Court’s order and will attend to it accordingly. We will be guided by Interpol regarding the next steps,” Chrispin Phiri spokesperson for South Africa’s minister of justice and correctional services, told Lusa.

The South African Constitutional Court (ConCourt) on Wednesday rejected for the second time in 12 months a new appeal by the Mozambican attorney general’s office (PGR) against the extradition of former minister Manuel Chang to the US, as part of the hidden debts case.

Today, the lawyer of the Mozambican PGR in South Africa, Busani Mabunda, confirmed to Lusa that “following the trial, Mr. Chang will be extradited to the USA.

In a statement released today, the Mozambican attorney general acknowledged that Manuel Chang will be extradited to the US, “there being no more room for appeal”.

The Mozambican judicial body concedes that, in practice, the South African court’s decision means that the former leader will be handed over to the US justice system, which intends to try him for his alleged involvement in the case of undeclared debts incurred by the government of then Mozambican president Armando Guebuza.

On Wednesday, the South African Constitutional Court “ordered the extradition of Manuel Chang to the United States, a decision taken by the final instance, with no further room for any appeal,” the prosecutor’s note said.

“This decision has negative implications for ongoing proceedings in Mozambique and abroad. Mozambique continues to understand that its grounds [for requesting Manuel Chang’s repatriation] are valid and, unfortunately, at no time were they attended to by the South African courts,” the text continues.

For the Mozambican PGR, the only jurisdiction to judge Manuel Chang is the Mozambican one, because it was in Mozambique that the facts occurred and the injured parties are the Mozambican state and people.

“We will continue with the proceedings brought against Manuel Chang until the end, using all available accountability mechanisms,” the statement said.

The PGR noted that the former finance minister was a defendant and had already been sentenced by the Maputo City Judicial Court, as part of a separate case about undeclared debts.

Manuel Chang, 63, was arrested on 29 December 2018 at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, on his way to Dubai, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the US on 27 December. He is now 67 years old.

Source: Lusa