The attorney general said yesterday that the prosecution defends the interests of the state in the case of the former finance minister detained in South Africa, after South Africa's Constitutional Court rejected the appeal over the extradition of Manuel Chang.

"What is important to know is that the Public Ministry wants to defend the interests of the Mozambican state," Beatriz Buchili told the media, moments after signing a memorandum for cooperation between the Public Ministry of Mozambique and that of Cape Verde in Maputo.

On Tuesday, according to Lusa, the South African Constitutional Court (TC) rejected an appeal request from Mozambique's Attorney General's Office (PGR) against the decision to extradite former Finance Minister Manuel Chang to the United States of America (USA), which intends to try the former governor, imprisoned for three and a half years without trial in South Africa as part of the hidden debts case.

In its decision, the South African TC "concluded that the application should be dismissed with costs as it is not in the interest of justice to hear him at this stage."

Beatriz Buchili referred that the decisions that are taken at the level of the courts must be respected, but reiterated that the objective of the Mozambican Public Ministry is to defend the interests of the State.

"There are decisions being made at the level of the courts, we will respect them. We will await the course of the processes in the courts and then we will see," declared the attorney general, claiming that she could not give more details due to legal imperative.

At the end of last year, Mozambique's Attorney General filed a request for direct access to the South African Constitutional Court requesting a review of the decision by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to extradite former Mozambican minister Manuel Chang, imprisoned for three and a half years in South Africa, to the United States.

The former ruler's extradition case is still pending before South Africa's Supreme Court of Justice in Bloemfontein, where Mozambique's OPG has also filed a request to appeal the decision announced on November 10, 2021 by the provincial court in Johannesburg.

In Mozambique, Manuel Chang is the target of an autonomous lawsuit related to the hidden debts case.

In the main proceedings taking place in the country, 19 defendants are awaiting the reading of the verdict, scheduled for August.

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

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, three former Credit Suisse bankers and a Privinvest broker were detained at the request of the US courts.

The investigation alleges that the $2.7 billion financing operation, according to the Public Prosecutor's Office, to create the Mozambican public companies Ematum, Proindicus and MAM during the term of President Armando Guebuza is a vast case of corruption and money laundering.