Mozambique's former finance minister Manuel Chang was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on December 29 last year for his alleged involvement in fraudulent loans to Mozambican state firms. Picture: AFP/ NICHOLAS KAMM
Minister of justice and correctional services Ronald Lamola authorised the director-general of the department of justice and constitutional development, Vusi Madonsela, to file papers in response to Chang’s urgent application to be surrendered to the Mozambique authorities. The immunity suggested that extradition to Mozambique would contravene the SADC Protocol, South African Constitution and the Extradition Act, rendering the decision to extradite illegal, the ministry said.According to the statement, “the SA Extradition Act requires that the person to be extradited should have been charged for the crimes he is alleged to have committed. In Chang's case it is not the case since his immunities were not yet lifted.
Chang, 63, was Mozambique's finance minister from 2005 to 2015. He was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on December 29 last year for his alleged involvement in $2bn in fraudulent loans to Mozambican state firms. that the Mozambican government took out loans amounting to $2bn to buy a tuna fishing fleet and surveillance ships, but hid the transaction from parliament and international donors.
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