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Mozambique: Former Minister Chang in need of medical care – lawyer
8:31 CAT | 12 Dec 2019
File photo: Lusa
Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang, who has been detained in South Africa for almost a year in the case of ‘hidden debts’, requires care for lack of medical treatment, his lawyer told Lusa.
“He has been detained for almost a year now and just before he was arrested in South Africa, he had undergone surgery, unfortunately, he did not receive any medical treatment to help him in the recovery process,” lawyer Rudi Krause told Lusa.
According to the South African lawyer, the former minister and senior member of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), in power in Mozambique, underwent knee surgery.
“From a medical point of view, he is not as well as he could be and it is regrettable that the South African authorities, who gave the magistrate assurances that he would receive medical treatment, have not provided it to date,” he said.
The lawyer said that the incarceration in South Africa, since 29 December 2018, is physically affecting Chang, although he is strong and emotionally determined, something he said he noted during a visit he made last Monday to the former Mozambican governor, in Modderbee prison, outside Johannesburg.
Regarding the diabetes condition declared by Chang in the application for release on bail, which the Kempton Park court rejected on 15 February, the lawyer told Lusa that that situation appears to be under control purely because the food he receives is limited.
Krause said that the decision of the Superior Court of Gauteng, which on Wednesday rejected a petition from Mozambique for a higher court in South Africa to maintain the extradition of former Chang to his country, will considerably delay the procedures for his deportation, which he anticipates to be prolonged.
In this sense, Krause told Lusa that Chang had decided to request freedom on bail in these circumstances (state of health).
Chang, 62, has been detained in Modderbee prison on the outskirts of Johannesburg since December 29 last year at the request of the US, the first applicant for his extradition.
He was arrested at the OR Tambo international airport in Johannesburg on his way to Dubai and is expected to stand trial in a New York court for fraud, corruption and money laundering in an international fraud of $2.2 billion (about €2 billion).
Chang’s arrest and US extradition request are related to his role in providing financial guarantees from the former Mozambican government, chaired by Armando Guebuza, to create the public companies Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, for maritime safety and fishing, without the support of the Mozambican Parliament and Administrative Court.
The US courts recently acquitted the Lebanese citizen Jean Boustani, negotiator of the company Privinvest, who was accused of conspiracies to commit transfer fraud, securities fraud and money laundering in the case of hidden debts.
Source: Lusa
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