Johannesburg, South Africa (ADV) – The former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang will soon be extradited to his home country according to the Daily Maverick.
The 63 year-old politician is facing extradition requests from both the US and his home country. He has held in South Africa since December under an international arrest warrant issued by the US. He was arrested while making his way to Dubai at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg airport on December 29 on a US extradition request.
Earlier this month, the Mozambican attorney general’s office and the Supreme Court initiated a request to withdraw Chang’s immunity as was enjoying automatic immunity as a lawmaker. The move was endorsed by the country’s Parliament despite being opposed by the opposition MPs who boycotted the session on the ground that it was a ploy to block Chang’s extradition to the United States.
Chang was denied bail in Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court last week and is expected to appear in court again on February 26 to hear if he is to be extradited to the US.
Recently, presiding over the matter, Magistrate Sagra Subroyen said that releasing Chang on bail would undermine SA’s criminal system.
Subroyen said her court is not meant to determine the guilt or none guilt of Chang, but to consider if he is a candidate for bail.
Earlier this week, South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu told ‘Daily Maverick’ in an interview that her government had instead acceded to a request from Maputo to extradite him there.
“We have agreed that this will be expedited as soon as we are done with the Interpol case we will allow Mozambique to have their former minister back,” said the South African Foreign Minister.
“We’re sending him to Mozambique to be tried and we believe that is the easiest thing for everybody.”
Chang, accused of fraud and corruption by the US authorities, is in a South African jail awaiting South Africa’s decision on his extradition to the United States, which was also requested by the Mozambican authorities.
“Right now we have received a request from Mozambique and we have acceded to that,” she added.
Previously Sisulu told the Deutsche Welle Africa in a radio interview: “We have extremely good relations with Mozambique, as we have with all our neighbours.”
Chang was finance minister during the governance of Armando Guebuza (2005-2015). It was under his mandate that the Mozambican government endorsed debts contracted to three public companies linked to maritime safety and fisheries in 2013 and 2014. He is accused by the US because some of the financial transactions in which he was involved were made through US banks.
Meanwhile, since last week, Mozambican courts detained nine people in the hidden debts investigation, including the son and the former personal secretary of former president Armando Guebuza.
© Bur-JHB – M.C – African Daily Voice (ADV) – Follow us on Twitter : @ADVinfo_en
