Deep divisions over extradition scraps

A former Mozambican Finance Minister and three high-profile European executives remain embroiled in major cases that could have severe consequences for several countries. Legalbrief reports that the Namibian Government has allegedly failed to set the process in motion to extradite the three Fishrot-accused directors of Icelandic fishing and fish processing company Samherji, despite pledging to do so. And a court in neighbouring South Africa has reserved judgment on whether to overturn Justice Minister Ronald Lamola’s decision last month to extradite former Mozambican Finance Minister Manuel Chang back to Mozambique. In the fishing quota case, the suspects – Ingvar Júlíusson, Egill Helgi Árnason and Adalsteinn Helgason – are accused of being involved in a scheme in which Icelandic companies paid them at least N$103m to get access to Namibian fishing quotas between 2014 and 2019. The Namibian reports that the delay in the extradition process has caused friction between the Justice Ministry and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). ACC deputy director-general Erna van der Merwe has warned the Ministry's acting executive director Simataa Limbo that the extradition request is stalling. ‘It was thus with utter dismay that our office took note of the contents of the recent communiqué received from your Ministry which clearly demonstrates that no attempt appears to have been made to process the extradition request,’ she wrote.

Full report in The Namibian

Meanwhile, Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Commission DG, Paulus Noa, says an investigation into the alleged transfer of N$1bn  linked to the corruption cases has run cold. And it accuses South African lawyer Marén de Klerk – one of the accused in Namibia’s biggest ever graft scandal – of lying. Noa told The Namibian that the investigation by the commission found that De Klerk's claims about the funds being held in a Kazakhstan bank account were ‘bogus’. ‘Our investigation could not establish the existence of a bank account,’ Noa said. Several suspects have been charged with fraud, corruption and money laundering in connection with the quotas scandal.

Full report in The Namibian

Mozambique’s Fórum de Monitoria do Orçamento (FMO), an umbrella body of watchdog NGOs, asked the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) to order that Chang be extradited to the US instead. It fears he will not be prosecuted in Mozambique. Lamola and the Mozambique Government are opposing FMO’s application. After hearing arguments from the three sides on Friday, Judge Margaret Victor extended an existing order that forbids Lamola from extraditing Chang to Mozambique until she has ruled on the application. The Daily Maverick reports that Chang was arrested in transit through OR Tambo International Airport on 29 December 2018 on a warrant issued on behalf of the US Government, which had indicted him on charges of corruption arising out of a $2bn fraudulent scheme that he signed off on in 2013 and 2014 when he was Finance Minister. In January 2019, the US asked SA to extradite him to the US to face the charges. A few days later, Mozambique, which had not before then indicted him, also asked SA to extradite him to Mozambique to face charges arising from the same ‘Hidden Debts’ scandal. In May 2019, Lamola’s predecessor, Michael Masutha, decided to extradite him to Mozambique, but after he became Minister Lamola and FMO both challenged the decision in the High Court on the grounds that Chang could not be extradited to Mozambique as he still enjoyed immunity from prosecution as a member of Parliament. The High Court upheld the challenge and sent the decision back to Lamola to reconsider. Lamola sat on the decision until August, when he suddenly announced he had decided to extradite Chang to Mozambique. The FMO immediately challenged the decision.

Advocate Max du Plessis SC, for the FMO, argued on Friday that there was still no certainty that Mozambique would prosecute Chang as there were lingering suspicions he might still enjoy immunity from any actions he had taken as a Minister and MP The FMO’s case rests heavily on a memorandum which Lamola himself, as well as Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffery, the state law adviser and other senior officials all signed, recommending that Chang be extradited to the US, notes the DM report. The memorandum, drafted in July 2020, was based on the opinions of five anonymous legal experts from SA and Mozambique. Their main argument was that although Chang was no longer an MP and so no longer enjoyed immunity for anything he might have done since ceasing to be an MP, it was not clear whether or not he also no longer enjoyed immunity for what he did when he was still an MP – and a Minister. 

Advocate Sesi Baloyi SC, for Lamola, presented the separation of powers argument, saying the principle would be violated if the court usurped the Justice Minister’s prerogative to decide where to extradite Chang. And, observes the DM report, she told Victor that she could only issue an order that Chang should be extradited to the US if she had established the relevant objective facts of the case, such as that Chang still enjoyed immunity from prosecution in Mozambique and that the Mozambican Government had acted in bad faith by insisting he longer enjoyed immunity. William Makhori SC, representing the Mozambique Government, noted that Maputo had issued two arrest warrants for Chang, in January 2019 and February 2020, and an indictment against him in November 2020. It had also begun investigating Chang in the Hidden Debts case as early as 2015, when it had sought legal assistance from the US and others. And so there was no reason to doubt its word that it intended to prosecute Chang. And he said the FMO’s South African lawyers did not know enough about Mozambique law to question the sincerity of these arrest warrants and the indictment.

Full Daily Maverick report