Mozambique: Conviction of ex-finance minister in US must be respected – judges

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Mozambique: Conviction of ex-finance minister in US must be respected – judges

4:08 CAT | 09 Aug 2024

File photo: Lusa

The Mozambican Association of Judges (AMJ) argued on Friday that the decision of the US justice system to convict former minister of finance Manuel Chang should be respected, because the US is a “sovereign” state.

Manuel Chang was convicted in the United States on Thursday as part of the hidden debts case by a federal jury in New York.

The former minister of finance was convicted of accepting bribes and conspiracy to embezzle funds from Mozambique’s efforts to protect and expand its natural gas and fishing industries, in a plan to enrich himself and cheat investors.

Speaking to journalists on Friday, the president of the AMJ, Esmeraldo Matavele, said that the laws and the American state must be respected in relation to the conviction of Manuel Chang: “Mozambique has its laws, America has its laws, if the American state understood that our compatriot Manuel Chang was guilty in the case that was being tried and applied the law in that sense, we, as judges, cannot criticise, nor can we pronounce ourselves, because we also respect the decision of a sovereign body and a sovereign state, which is America”.

The sentence, he continued, must be favourable to Mozambique’s interests in the case of the hidden debts, but it must also take into account the protection of the fundamental rights of the former minister of finance.

During the trial in New York, Manuel Chang’s lawyers said that the former minister was doing what his government wanted when he signed the promises that Mozambique would pay back the loans and that there is no evidence of a financial quid pro quo for the then government minister.

Between 2013 and 2016, three companies controlled by the Mozambican government discreetly took out million-dollar loans from major foreign banks.

Manuel Chang signed guarantees that the government would repay the loans, which were crucial for the creditors.

The proceeds were supposed to finance a tuna fleet, a shipyard, Coast Guard vessels and radar systems to protect the natural gas fields off the coast of the Indian Ocean.

But bankers and government officials embezzled the loan money, US prosecutors said.

“The evidence in this case shows you that there is an international scheme of fraud, money laundering and bribery of epic proportions going on here” and that Chang “chose to participate,” Assistant US Attorney Genny Ngai told jurors in her closing arguments.

Prosecutors accused the former minister of finance of collecting seven million dollars in bribes, transferred through US banks to an associate’s European accounts.

Manuel Chang’s defence said that there was no evidence that he was promised or received a cent.

The only deal Chang made “was the legal agreement to borrow money from banks to allow his country to engage in these public infrastructure works,” said defence lawyer Adam Ford.

Discovered in 2016, the debts were estimated at around US$2.7 billion (around €2.55 billion), according to figures presented by the Mozambican public prosecutor.

Mozambique was then one of the ten fastest growing economies in the world for two decades, according to the World Bank, but ended up plunged into financial upheaval.

Source: Lusa