What You Need to Know
Mozambique’s Minister of Justice, Mateus Saize, stated that the judiciary must determine the next steps regarding the potential trial of former Minister Manuel Chang, who is set to be deported after serving time in the U.S. for his involvement in the hidden debts scandal. The minister emphasized the importance of respecting judicial decisions and the need for clarity on pending legal matters.
Africa-Press – Mozambique. Mozambique’s Minister of Justice stated on Friday that a final decision from the judiciary is awaited regarding the potential trial of former Minister Manuel Chang within the country concerning the so-called “hidden debts,” while noting that an individual cannot be punished twice for the same crime.
“Mozambique will continue to work on what it considers still unresolved, and I believe the judiciary must be working in this regard. We also know that we cannot punish the same person for the same matters, the same crimes – that remains to be seen. The judiciary will know how to distinguish what has already been decided from what has not, in order to make a final decision on the matter,” said the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Mateus Saize, on the sidelines of the Eid al-Fitr celebration with the Islamic community in Maputo.
Former Finance Minister Manuel Chang is to be released on 26 March and deported to Mozambique, seven years after his detention in connection with the hidden debts process, according to a New York court.
The case concerns a request for early release on health grounds submitted by the defence to the United States Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY), Brooklyn. Chang was sentenced there a year ago to 102 months in prison, but the request was denied in a 12 February decision, to which Lusa had access, with Judge Nicholas Garaufis noting that there were no “extraordinary and compelling” reasons to justify early release, while confirming his release on 26 March.
“It is expected that he will complete his sentence before the end of next month [March], at which point he will be deported to Mozambique,” reads the decision, which also notes that Chang, 70, is “a few weeks from completing the sentence”, so any early release would advance his departure by only “a minimal period”, lacking sufficient legal grounds, despite the defence citing kidney problems, hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidaemia.
When questioned by journalists, the Minister of Justice said that only the judiciary knows what is being done regarding ongoing proceedings against the former official.
“Any citizen must return to their country, as the country has, on several occasions, requested his extradition to Mozambique to be tried in principle on its territory and answer to Mozambican law,” said Mateus Saize.
“This time it did not happen, but we also have confidence in foreign justice and we respect decisions taken abroad. There are, however, internal mechanisms to ratify foreign decisions for the purpose of their execution. If he has served his sentence, he has served it; if there are pending processes, I cannot comment further,” the minister added.
Chang, who headed Mozambique’s finance ministry from 2005 to 2015, is currently detained at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Danbury, Connecticut, and had sought release before completing his sentence, citing health issues, detention conditions, and errors in credit allocation for sentence reduction, having been in custody since December 2018, when he was detained in South Africa.
Manuel Chang was sentenced in the EDNY on 17 January 2025 to 102 months (eight and a half years) in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in connection with Mozambique’s hidden debts case.
He was accused of accepting bribes and conspiring to divert funds from Mozambique’s efforts to protect and expand its natural gas and fishing industries, in a scheme designed to enrich and deceive investors.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Chang collected seven million dollars (US$7 million; €6.1 million at current exchange rates) in bribes, transferred through US banks to European accounts of an associate, which the former minister denied.
Discovered in 2016, the hidden debts were estimated at around 2.7 billion dollars (approximately €2.3 billion), according to figures presented by the Mozambican Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The hidden debts scandal in Mozambique emerged in 2016 when it was revealed that the government had secretly borrowed approximately $2.7 billion, leading to significant financial and political repercussions. Manuel Chang, who served as Finance Minister during this period, was implicated in the scandal, accused of accepting bribes and misappropriating funds intended for national development. His case has drawn international attention, highlighting issues of corruption and governance in Mozambique.
