Manuel Zhang, former Minister of Finance of Mozambique. (Wikus de Wet, AFP)
- Manuel Zhang, the former Minister of Finance of Mozambique, will be extradited to the United States, not Maputo.
- This is a ruling made by the High Court of Gauteng in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
- Chang, who has been detained in South Africa since 2018, will be extradited for trial on suspicion of a criminal offence involving US$2 billion.
The High Court of Gauteng Province in Johannesburg ruled on Wednesday that Manuel Chang, the former Minister of Finance of Mozambique, who has been jailed in South Africa since 2018, will be extradited to the United States.
As far as the ruling is concerned, Zhang will be extradited to the United States for trial on suspicion of a criminal offence involving US$2 billion.
Attorney General Ronald Lamola ordered Zhang to be extradited to Maputo in August.
High Court Judge Margaret Victor said in her ruling, “In the absence of proper explanations and guarantees to support his [Lamola’s] Decision, this court cannot determine that the decision is reasonable”.
The ruling is a victory for Mozambican civil society groups, who worry that if Zhang is extradited to Mozambique, he will not be held accountable.
Chrispin Phiri, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice, said: “The ministry will conduct research as soon as it receives the written verdict, and communicate the way forward in due course.”
News24 reported that due to the discovery of large offshore natural gas deposits in Mozambique nearly a decade ago, officials and politicians hope to cash out by establishing three companies, which they borrowed from Credit Suisse and Russian Foreign Trade Bank from 2013 to 2014. 2 billion US dollars-a total of 12 percent of Mozambique’s GDP.
It did not develop maritime and security projects as proposed to the debtor, but allocated it to corrupt individuals.
Chang is accused of signing a guarantee that led to the so-called hidden debt scandal. Three Credit Suisse bankers pleaded guilty in a U.S. court in 2019 but have not yet been sentenced.
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