South Africa’s Constitutional Court (ConCourt) today rejected for the second time in 12 months a new appeal by the Attorney General of Mozambique (PGR) against the extradition of former minister Manuel Chang to the United States.
According to a court order to which Lusa had access, a panel of judges at the highest level of South African justice also ordered Mozambique’s PGR to bear the legal costs of a request filed after the deadline “due to lack of perspective”. reasonable success” from Maputo for the extradition of the former leader of Mozambique to his country in connection with hidden debts.
“The Constitutional Court has considered the request for clemency and the request for admission to appeal and has concluded that, although there is no reasonable chance of success on the merits of the request for admission to appeal, the delay in filing the request for admission to appeal is minimal, the explanation for the delay is adequate and the defendant is not harmed.” stressed.
“Therefore, a pardon is granted, but the appeal must be dismissed with costs for lack of a reasonable chance of success,” said a panel of 10 South African judges.
On June 7 last year, the South African Constitutional Court rejected Maputo’s request to appeal Chiang’s extradition to the United States.
“The court concluded that the application should be dismissed at a cost, as it is not in the interests of justice to consider it at this stage,” he said.
South Africa’s highest court decision this Wednesday “completes a very extensive legal process that has dragged on for more than four years of appeals against the extradition of Manuel Chang,” lawyer Andre Thomashausen told Lusa.
“The PGR of Mozambique is to blame for these delays, using every imaginable resource,” said a South African lawyer and retired academic from the University of South Africa (UNISA), a specialist in international and comparative law.
Over the past four years, the former Mozambican leader, who is seen as “key” in the so-called hidden debt scandal, has faced two competing extradition requests in South Africa from the US and Mozambique without trial. from the country.
At the age of 63, Manuel Chang was arrested on December 29, 2018 at the international airport. O. R. Tambo in Johannesburg on his way to Dubai on the basis of an international arrest warrant issued by the United States on December 27 for his alleged involvement in the so-called hidden debt process of $2.7 billion (€2.5 billion) secretly contracted in neighboring Portuguese-speaking country.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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