Mozambique issues arrest warrant for Manuel Chang

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique issues arrest warrant for Manuel Chang

1:52 CAT | 31 Jan 2019

Supreme Court president Adelino Muchanga, at a press conference on Tuesday morning. Photo: O País

Former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang is now officially sought by the Mozambican justice system, after the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon issued an arrest warrant for him, O País reports, citing a source close to the lawsuit.

The warrant was issued a day after the Standing Commission of the Assembly of the Republic decided in favour of a request by the Supreme Court for consent to hold Manuel Chang in pre-trial detention.

The Standing Commission nevertheless did point out that its ‘yes’ did not necessarily imply the lifting of Manuel Chang’s immunity, and reported that the Supreme Court had been informed of the steps to be taken to achieve this.

The sense was that the Standing Commission was saying that without a request for the lifting of Chang’s immunity, there were no legal conditions for the Supreme Court to have him arrested.

Speaking to the press on Tuesday morning, the president of the Supreme Court Adelino Muchanga did not clarify whether or not a request for a waiver of immunity would be presented.

Muchanga said he did not comment on procedural matters and advised the press and Mozambicans to await the outcome of the case.

But by yesterday afternoon, the Supreme Court had issued an arrest warrant for the still Member of Parliament Manuel Chang, who was detained in South Africa a month ago.

In fact, the warrant was issued less than 24 hours before the start of another session in the Kempton court in Johannesburg that is discussing Chang’s chances of being released on bail – now while facing yet another arrest warrant.

Issuing the arrest warrant will reinforce the Attorney General’s Office request for Chang’s transfer from South Africa to Mozambique.

The South African court has scheduled deliberation on Chang’s extradition to the United States of America or his transfer to Maputo for 5 February.

The arrest warrant against the former Mozambican finance minister is the first to be issued by the Mozambican Attorney General’s Office in the so-called ‘hidden debts’ case since 2015.

In its grounds for Chang’s pre-trail detention, the Supreme Court said that there was a risk of flight and of interference in the Attorney General’s investigation, currently underway.

By Emídio Beúla

Source: O País