The detention of Manuel Chang, for more than five years, and his extradition to the United States, in the context of the hidden debts case, for more than a year, "violates the most basic rights of the citizen, in deprivation of liberty", said Beatriz Buchili, during the annual report on the activity of the Public Prosecutor's Office of 2023 before the Assembly of the Republic.

Chang has been detained in New York since last July, after being extradited from South Africa, as part of the Mozambique hidden debts process.

Buchili criticized the fact that the American Justice has not yet tried Manuel Chang, after the US "claimed to have all the evidence, including the indictment".

Chang's extradition to the US, she continued, harms the progress of the autonomous process that the Mozambican Justice has instituted on the case of hidden debts.

"Mozambique respects the decision of the highest judicial body in South Africa, although we are convinced that our country is the only one with jurisdiction to exercise criminal action, in the case in question", declared the Attorney General of the Republic.

Manuel Chang will begin to be tried on July 29 in New York, USA, in the case of Mozambique's undeclared debts, according to a non-governmental anti-corruption organization.

The trial date was put forward by the Public Integrity Center (CIP) of Mozambique, which has been following the case and points out that it will coincide with the period of the electoral campaign for the Mozambican general elections.

In a 23-page document, the US Government, through the Department of Justice, presented a new indictment against Manuel Chang - who is also known as "Pantero" and "Chopstick" -, classified as a "replacement indictment".

The US Government argues that the Integrated Maritime Monitoring and Protection System (SIMP) project of the Mozambican maritime space, which gave rise to the "hidden debts", was not conceived by the Mozambican Government nor designed to protect Mozambique's maritime space.

The indictment says it is a "facade project created by the defendants and co-conspirators to make money".

"In reality, the Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM maritime projects were used by the defendant Manuel Chang and his co-conspirators to divert parts of the loan resources to pay millions in bribes to themselves, other Mozambican government officials and bankers", argued the US Department of Justice.

"In connection with their fraudulent scheme, the co-conspirators relied on the US financial system, among other things, to seek and secure investors and potential investors physically present in the United States", adds the document.

Also according to the indictment, the "co-conspirators diverted part of these values [of loans] to make bribe and commission payments, in US dollars, using the US financial system through transactions transferred through bank accounts in the United States, including at least five million dollars [4.6 million euros] to the defendant Manuel Chang through the Eastern District of New York".

The former Minister of Finance rejects all the accusations and points to the current President, Filipe Nyusi, at the time Minister of Defense, as the one who ordered him to sign the bank guarantees that made the hidden debts viable, according to the CIP of Mozambique.

Chang was Minister of Finance of Mozambique during Armando Guebuza's government, between 2005 and 2010, and will have endorsed debts of 2.7 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros) 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 mobilization of the loans was organized by the banks Credit Suisse and VTB of Russia, and was allegedly secretly endorsed by the Frelimo Government, led by the President of the Republic at the time, Armando Guebuza, without the knowledge of the parliament or the Administrative Court.

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