Mozambique Ex-finance chief Chang seeks to dismiss US indictment – Bloomberg

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Mozambique Ex-finance chief Chang seeks to dismiss US indictment – Bloomberg

8:35 CAT | 12 Jun 2023

File photo: Lusa

Mozambique’s former finance minister Manuel Chang is seeking to dismiss a US indictment against him, saying his detention in South Africa since December 2018 while awaiting extradition has denied him the right to a speedy trial.

The “deprivation of Mr. Chang’s liberty has violated the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution,” Adam Ford, Chang’s lawyer at Ford O’Brien Landy LLP said in a letter to the judge dated June 8. Under the Sixth Amendment, criminal defendants are legally entitled to adequate counsel and the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay.

Chang has been held in a prison outside Johannesburg since he was arrested on a warrant from the US, for his alleged role in a $2 billion sovereign debt scandal that ended in default. Mozambique filed a competing extradition request in 2019, sparking a series of court cases and appeals that culminated in South Africa’s top court ruling in May that he should be sent to face charges in the US.

“These competing requests to extradite Mr. Chang trapped him in a Kafkaesque labyrinth of never-ending administrative and court proceedings that continue to this day,” Ford said. “Even after over four years have passed since his arrest, the government of South Africa has still not completed the process of extraditing Mr. Chang or provided a date by when Mr. Chang can expect an end to this ordeal.”

Source: Bloomberg