The Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Mateus Saize, stated that the government is awaiting a final decision from the judiciary regarding the “possible trial” in Mozambique of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, in connection with the “hidden debts” case.
“We will continue to work on what is still considered unresolved, and I believe the judiciary should work toward that end. We also know that we cannot punish the same person for the same issues. The judiciary will know how to distinguish what has already been decided from what has not, in order to reach a final decision on the matter,” he said.
Last week, a court in New York, United States (U.S.), reiterated that seven years after his arrest, the former Mozambican finance minister will be released on March 26 and deported to Mozambique.
At issue is a request for early release on health grounds filed by the defense with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) in Brooklyn, which one year ago sentenced Chang to 102 months in prison, but which was rejected in a decision dated February 12. Meanwhile, in the document cited on Wednesday (18) by Lusa, Judge Nicholas Garaufis explains that there are no “extraordinary and compelling” reasons to grant the request, confirming his release on March 26.
As reported by Lusa, Saize reiterated that every citizen must return to their country of origin, emphasizing that on several occasions, the courts have requested the extradition of Manuel Chang so that he could be tried under Mozambican law.
“We trust foreign courts and respect the decisions they make. There are, however, domestic mechanisms to ratify foreign decisions for the purposes of their enforcement. If he has served his sentence, he has served it; if there are pending cases, I cannot comment further,” he concluded.
Manuel Chang was sentenced in January of last year to eight and a half years in prison after being found guilty of participating in a fraud involving $2 billion in loans to three state-owned companies linked to Mozambique’s fishing industry. Currently, the former official is being held at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Connecticut.
The sentence was significantly reduced due to administrative credits granted by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP), which accounted for the time already spent in pretrial detention and his good behavior while detained in South Africa since December 2018. These credits reduced the initial sentence to approximately 14 months, setting his release date for March 26.
During the trial, U.S. prosecutors alleged that the shipbuilding company Privinvest paid Chang $7 million in bribes in exchange for his approval of a Mozambican government guarantee for loans from banks, such as Credit Suisse, to three state-owned companies.
The loans were intended to develop the national fishing industry and improve maritime safety, but the projects failed and the state-owned companies did not pay what they owed, leaving investors with losses of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
Donors such as the International Monetary Fund temporarily suspended aid to Mozambique, triggering a collapse of the metical and financial turmoil.
Chang has always maintained his innocence, with his lawyers arguing that the former minister approved the government guarantee because the President of Mozambique wanted it, and there was no evidence that the seven million dollars was intended for the former official.
The hidden debt scandal dates back to 2013 and 2014, when the then-finance minister approved, without parliamentary approval, state guarantees on loans from ProÍnducus, Ematum, and MAM to Credit Suisse and VTB.
Chang was arrested at Johannesburg’s main international airport in late 2018, shortly before the U.S. indictment was made public.
