Mozambique’s Minister of Justice, Helena Kida, said on Wednesday 14 August that the government will respect the decision of the American courts to convict former Finance Minister Manuel Chang in the case of hidden debts.
Kida clarified that decisions taken outside of Mozambique should also be taken into account, and there is no need to take further action to change the measure that has already been established.
‘We have always respected the jurisdiction of others. I think the decision has already been made, so we have to take it into account,’ she said on the sidelines of the opening of the 9th Coordinating Council of the institution she heads.
On Thursday 8 August, the US jury found that Manuel Chang had indeed received seven million dollars in bribes in exchange for approving a government guarantee for loans to three state-owned companies. The judge now has to determine the sentence, which will be known in the coming weeks.
The former minister was accused, along with other co-defendants, of defrauding foreign investors in the conversion of Ematum’s debt into securities, known as ‘Eurobonds’, which were placed on the market by the banks holding the debt.
The jury found Manuel Chang guilty of conspiracy to commit ‘wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering’ in the case of the hidden debts.
The penalty for the offences Chang was charged with is up to 12 years in prison, and the former finance minister has already served five years since his arrest in December 2018 in Johannesburg.
