SA pauses extradition of Mozambique former minister

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa

South Africa’s decision to extradite former Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang to his home country has been blocked pending a court hearing after a civil society organisation objected, Reuters news agency reports, quoting court documents.

Mr Chang is accused of corruption after allegedly receiving bribes to sign off on international loans of $2bn (£1.5bn) intended to buy fishing trawlers and military patrol boats. However, much of it was allegedly diverted to government officials. Mr Chang denies any wrongdoing.

South Africa’s Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has given an undertaking that Mr Chang will not be extradited” until a decision is handed down by a court on Friday, Reuters reports.

The hearing will focus on an application by the Mozambique Budget Monitoring Forum (FMO), a group of civil society organisations, to stop the extradition until arguments against it can be heard.

It wants the ex-minister to be extradited to the US, where he is also wanted on similar charges, Reuters reports.

South Africa’s Daily Maverick reports that lawyers believe the South African government was about to put Chang on a plane to Maputo on Wednesday morning and a reception committee of officials was already waiting for him at Maputo international airport.

In a report titled “High Court orders Justice Minister Lamola to halt extradition of Manuel Chang to Mozambique” Daily Maverick reports that after the Mozambican anti-corruption watchdog body Forum de Monitoria do Orçamento (FMO) launched an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday for an order preventing his extradition, Pretoria reversed its decision. 

Lamola gave an undertaking to FMO’s lawyers not to send Chang home until the urgent application had been heard on Friday.

If FMO wins the case, Chang — who has already been in a South African jail for 32 months — will remain behind bars pending a full hearing, probably next month, on the merits of extraditing him to Mozambique. 

If the court rejects FMO’s application, Chang will probably go home within days, adds the Daily Maverick.

Chang has been in prison in South Africa since 29 December 2018, when he was detained on a US arrest warrant while in transit through OR Tambo International Airport. 

The US then applied to South Africa to extradite him. 

Within days, the Mozambique government also asked South Africa to extradite him — even before he had been charged in the hidden debt case, which dates back to 2013.

Civil society groups in South Africa and Mozambique have questioned whether Mozambique has the political will or capacity to mount a proper prosecution.