Mozambique news: Ex-Finance Minister Manuel Chang to resist US extradition

Manuel Chang, the former finance minister of Mozambique will reportedly oppose extradition to the United States after he was taken in custody on charges related to a debt deal that led to a default in 2017, according to his lawyer.

The nation, among the world’s poorest, borrowed about $2 billion from 2013 to 2014 to buy tuna-fishing boats and a coastline protection system, but only disclosed the bulk of the debt to the International Monetary Fund in 2016, prompting the lender to halt funding. Chang, who was arrested Dec. 29 in South Africa, presided over the deal at the time.

Manuel Chang has received an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice detailing charges linked to three loans to Mozambican state companies, lawyer Rudi Krause said by phone Wednesday. Chang will apply for bail at a Jan. 8 hearing in a Johannesburg court, he said, as reported by Bloomberg.

“The allegations relate to those three loans,” Krause said, referring to debts taken on by Ematum, ProIndicus and Mozambique Asset Management. “He will oppose the application for his extradition.”

Manuel Chang was arrested at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, while en route to Dubai. South African authorities had told him to clear immigration when his plane landed from Maputo, Mozambique’s capital, Krause said. That isn’t normal procedure when passengers are in transit, and Chang was arrested after going through immigration, he added.

“The circumstances of his arrest are concerning if not alarming,” Krause said. Officials “secured his entry into South Africa by way of deception.”

The Department of Justice may use the charges to get Chang to provide more information for the investigation, according to Darias Jonker, an analyst at Eurasia Group.

“The U.S. will probably use these initial charges as leverage over Chang, thereby coercing him to cooperate with international investigations,” he said in a note Dec. 31. “This process is likely to answer key questions that were never adequately addressed by the independent audit of the scandal.”