The Johannesburg High Court has dismissed the Mozambican government’s application for leave to appeal against the court’s decision that former Mozambican finance minister Manuel Chang should be extradited to the US to face corruption charges.
Chang has been in South African prisons since 27 December 2018 while lawyers and governments fight over whether he should be extradited to the US or Mozambique to stand trial. On 10 November 2021, Judge Victor agreed with the FMO that Chang would be unlikely to face real justice in Mozambique. She overturned Lamola’s 23 August 2021 decision to extradite Chang to Mozambique and ordered instead that he should be extradited to the US.
But Judge Victor rejected this application in her judgment on Wednesday, saying Maputo had offered no compelling reasons why it should be granted leave to appeal and nor did its appeal have “a reasonable prospect of success”.