Arrest of ex-minister ruled legal
Magistrate finds in favour of State against former Mozambique finance minister
A KEMPTON park magistrate has ruled in favour of the State, saying the arrest warrant issued against Mozambique finance minister Manuel Chang was legal.
This followed hours of argument and counter-argument between Chang’s defence lawyer and the State prosecutor.
The US is working on a formal extradition document to have Chang brought to the US to face charges over allegations of fraudulent loans involving $2 billion (R27bn), together with a number of co-conspirators.
Chang oversaw Mozambique’s finances when it allegedly failed to disclose government guarantees for $2bn in international borrowing by state-owned firms and has been in detention since December 29 after an arrest warrant was issued by a Pretoria magistrate.
Yesterday, a packed Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court – filled with Interpol officials, local and international media, police in combat fatigues and armed with automatic weapons, and Mozambique Embassy officials – listened for hours as defence lawyer Willie Vermeulen and state prosecutor Elivera Dreyer debated the legality of the arrest warrant.
As Dreyer and Vermeulen went into the minutiae of the laws surrounding extradition, Vermeulen asserted that arresting Chang based on the provisional arrest warrant originally issued was unlawful because the US had not sent an official extradition request in writing to South Africa and hadn’t followed the country’s extradition laws.
But Dreyer told the African News Agency (ANA) that as per the extradition treaty between the US and South Africa, the arrest was legal and South Africa had incorporated subsequent legislation into the law governing extradition.
“It’s a complex matter, especially when high-profile individuals are involved. Mozambique has no extradition treaty with the US, so when Chang was in South Africa it became a matter of urgency to have him arrested,” said Dreyer.
The State prosecutor also told the court that an official extradition could take up to 60 days legally and that American officials were working on sending the full documentation package to South Africa, before adding that the initial provisional request sent by the US was accompanied by a sworn affidavit provided to the Pretoria magistrate by a US official involved in prosecuting Chang.
Another of Vermeulen’s arguments was that the arrest warrant sent by the US was compromised due to missing information and being censored.
Dreyer countered that a second warrant had been issued with the missing information added, and that while the names of two co-defendants on the run were still missing, this was because Interpol was trying to track them down and releasing their names would give them a heads-up as they attempted to escape justice.
After ruling in favour of the State, the magistrate adjourned the court to decide on whether Chang would be released on bail.