Mocambique: Something Fishy

MOZAMBIQUE Something Fishy The former finance minister of Mozambique’s extradition to the US was postponed and he was transferred to solitary confinement, following his indictment along with at least 17 others in connection with an alleged scam involving $2 billion in fraudulent loans to state-owned companies. South Africa’s Kempton Park Magistrates Court on Wednesday rejected former Mozambique Finance Minister Manuel Chang’s lawyers’ claims that his arrest was unlawful, South Africa-based Eyewitness News reported. But the authorities moved him into solitary confinement following arguments that he was denied a bed and forced to pay protection money in the Modderbee prison – where he had shared a cell with 20 other inmates. Mozambique announced the indictments Monday following the charging of three ex-Credit Suisse bankers in the US over their role in the scheme – in which the southern African country borrowed money from international investors to fund projects that included a state tuna fishery, Al Jazeera reported. Chang, 63, was arrested in South Africa at the end of December. In Mozambique, he and the other defendants were charged with “abuse of power, abuse of trust, swindling and money laundering,” the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) said in a statement.