Mozambique’s Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) has called the decision by the Constitutional Court of Africa to refuse it leave to appeal for the extradition to Maputo of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, and consequently pave the way for his extradition to the United States, as “unjust.”
On Wednesday, the Constitutional Court argued that Mozambique’s appeal lacked “reasonable prospects of success on the merits of the application for leave to appeal.” The court also ordered Mozambique to pay the legal costs involved – the court had never weighed in on the merits of the appeal.
Chang has been subject to two competing extradition requests from the United States and Mozambique, and has been held in a South African prison, under a United States warrant, since his arrest at the OR Tambo Airport in December 2018 en route to Dubai. Chang is wanted in the US for his role in the $2.2 billion ‘hidden debts’ scandal.
The term “hidden debts” refers to loans worth $2.2 billion obtained from the banks Credit Suisse and VTB Russia by three Mozambican companies, ProIndicus, EMATUM (Mozambique Tuna Company) and MAM (Mozambique Asset Management), with the sole contractor and supplier, the Abu Dhabi-based group Privinvest, selling them fishing boats, radar stations and other assets at exceedingly inflated prices, between 2013 and 2014.
As Finance Minister, Chang signed loan guarantees, committing the government to pay the banks in case the companies defaulted, which happened. The state guarantees were bought up by international investors, including American, who ended up being swindled. Thus, the American government’s involvement hinges on the fact that the scheme abused the US financial system.
However, the PGR argued that the only country that has jurisdiction over Chang is Mozambique because the crimes were committed within its borders, and the aggrieved party is the Mozambican state and its people.
“This decision has negative implications for the cases underway in Mozambique and abroad. Mozambique continues to believe that its reasons are valid and, unfortunately, have not been attended to at any time by the South African courts, which have limited themselves to questions of form to the detriment of questions of substance, which, in our view, constitutes an unfair decision,” said the PGR in a statement released on Thursday.
Comment
The PGR spent time and money in trying to bring Chang to Maputo to answer for his crime. The problem with the PGR is that it hardly lifted a finger until Chang was arrested. Even then, it had not investigated or charged him with any crime.
So, its waking up after his detention in South Africa had an element of hypocrisy. At the time, Chang was still a member of parliament, and the PGR did not at least ask the Assembly of the Republic, the country’s parliament, to lift his immunity.
It’s little wonder that the Fórum de Monitoria do Orçamento (FMO), a forum comprising various civil society organisations that monitors the budget and public finance, intervened in a South African and managed to block his extradition to Maputo.
The forum’s argument was that Mozambique had never been interested in trying Chang, and that it had only woken from its slumber when it found out the US was seeking his extradition.
Furthermore, the FMO has been arguing that with Chang in Maputo, Mozambicans would never know who had given the order for the issuance of state guarantees, nor all the people who participate in the scheme.
Since some Mozambicans think that one of schemers is President Filipe Nyusi, they think that Chang can help the Americans clarify who the “New Man” is – this denomination appears in the US indictment, and it is thought to refer to Nyusi.
Observers say that this is the reason why the PGR was hell-bent to have Chang extradited to Maputo where they could manipulate the trial in order to protect the president. With Chang in the US, the PGR loses control of the case.
So, if “New Man” is indeed Nyusi, he has every reason to fear what Chang might tell the Americans. Nyusi has so far refused being involved in the scheme.
As for the PGR, it did not explain to the Mozambicans why it kept paying lawyers in South Africa to argue Mozambique’s case when it had become clear to most that there were no chances that Chang would be coming to Maputo. Nor does it say whether it has suffered political pressure to ensure that Chang did not end up in a US court.
The lesson for the PGR and the whole judicial system in Mozambique would be to put their house in order. If the judicial system is to be respected, it must be independent from political power both “de jure” and “de facto.”
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