The South African Supreme Court of Appeal has rejected the Mozambican government's request for permission to appeal against the extradition of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to the United States, as part of the hidden debts case.

"The application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs on the grounds that there is no reasonable prospect of success in the appeal and there is no other compelling reason for the appeal to be heard," states the order of the South African Supreme Court of Appeal to which Lusa had access today.

According to the court order, the South African court ordered on December 8, 2022 that the Mozambican government's request be rejected.

In June, South Africa's Constitutional Court (ConCourt), the highest court in the country, also rejected a request by Mozambique's Attorney General's Office (PGR) to appeal the extradition of former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to the US.

"The Constitutional Court considered this request for permission to appeal directly to it. The Court concluded that the request should be dismissed with costs because it is not in the interests of justice to hear it at this stage," the Constitutional Court's order, to which Lusa has had access, states.

On November 10, 2021, the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered South Africa to extradite former Finance Minister Manuel Chang, imprisoned for almost three years without trial, to the US, invalidating the extradition to Mozambique previously announced by the South African government.

After reading the 75-page sentence via videoconference, Judge Margarete Victor concluded that the decision by South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola "is invalid".

"As a result, I order, in the first place, that the decision of the second respondent [Minister of Justice] on August 23, 2021 to extradite the first respondent [Manuel Chang] to the Republic of Mozambique is declared inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996 and is invalid and null and void," he declared.

"Secondly, the decision of the second respondent [Minister of Justice] on 21 May 2019 is replaced by the following: Mr. Manuel Chang should be surrendered and extradited to the United States of America to stand trial for his alleged crimes, in the United States of America, as contained in the extradition request of 28 January 2019," concluded the South African judge.

South Africa has no extradition agreement with Mozambique, which has contested the US extradition request for Manuel Chang to the US, a country with which Maputo also has no extradition treaty.

In the last four years, the former Mozambican ruler, who is seen as the "key" figure in the so-called hidden debts scandal, has faced two competing requests from the United States and Mozambique for his extradition from South Africa without trial.

At the age of 63, Manuel Chang was arrested on 29 December 2018 at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, en route to Dubai, on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the US on 27 December, for his alleged involvement in the so-called hidden debts case in the neighboring Portuguese-speaking country.

Manuel Chang's arrest was legal under the extradition treaty between the US and South Africa, signed in September 1999 in Washington, according to the South African prosecutor's office.

Chang was Mozambique's finance minister under Armando Guebuza, between 2005 and 2010, and is said to have guaranteed debts of 2.7 billion dollars secretly contracted in favor of Ematum, Proindicus and MAM, public companies mentioned in the US indictment, allegedly created for this purpose in the maritime security and fisheries sectors, between 2013 and 2014.

The loan mobilization was organized by the Russian banks Credit Suisse and VTB.

The loans were secretly endorsed by the Frelimo government, led by the President of the Republic at the time, Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of Parliament and the Administrative Court.

On December 7, 11 of the 19 defendants in the hidden debts case were sentenced to prison terms of between 10 and 12 years and three of them were also ordered to pay compensation to the state equivalent to 2.6 billion euros.

The amount is similar to the debts, plus additional losses in the biggest corruption case in Mozambique's history.

The three defendants are Ndambi Guebuza, son of former President Armando Guebuza, and two former secret service leaders, Gregório Leão and António Carlos do Rosário (former director-general and former head of economic 'intelligence', respectively), who each received a 12-year prison sentence.

At issue are the crimes of embezzlement, abuse of office, money laundering, association to commit crimes and, in the case of Ndambi, falsification of documents, blackmail and influence peddling with his father, in the case of Guebuza's son.