Fate of Manuel Chang still hangs in the balance – AIM report

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Fate of Manuel Chang still hangs in the balance – AIM report

5:09 CAT | 23 Feb 2019

File photo: RM

The fate of Mozambique’s former finance minister, Manuel Chang, who has been held in South African police custody since 29 December, has not yet been decided, the South African Justice Ministry declared on Thursday.

The Ministry thus frontally contradicted Foreign Minister Lindiwe Sisulu who, on Tuesday, in an interview with the “Daily Maverick” newspaper, declared that the South African authorities will not extradite Chang to the United States, where he faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, wire fraud and securities fraud, arising from his role in providing illicit government guarantees for over two billion dollars’ worth of loans to the fraudulent companies Proindicus, Ematum (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management) in 2013 and 2014.

The same crimes are being investigated by Mozambican prosecutors, and the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office too has requested Chang’s extradition. Sisulu claimed that the decision had already been taken in favour of sending Chang back to Mozambique.

But Sisulu had no business interfering in a matter which is still in the hands of the South African courts. The Justice Ministry objected to Sisulu treading on the toes of the courts, and a spokesperson for the Ministry, Max Mpuzana, made it clear that so far no decision has been taken.

In an e-mail sent to the media on Thursday, Mpuzana said “Both extradition requests have been referred to our courts for a determination as required by our law. The final decision will be made once the court process has run its course.”

There will be two separate hearings next week at the Kempton Park Magistrates Court in Johannesburg – one on the extradition request from the US, expected on Tuesday, and one by a different judge on the request from Mozambique. But the final word rests with the South African Minister of Justice.

Even then, the possibility remain open of an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The US request is based on the extradition treaty between South Africa and the United States. There is no extradition treaty between Mozambique and South Africa, and so the Mozambican case is based on a protocol of SADC (Southern African Development Community) on extradition.

Source: AIM