Appeal if not happy with Court's decision, says Prosecutor-General while Defence Force Commander condemns conviction of soldiers and the use of Portuguese in Courts

Diario Nacional, March 11, 2010 language source: Tetun - The Prosecutor General Ana Pesoa Pinto has said that the only way for the lawyer for Frederico da Conceicao Oan Ki’ak, a former guerilla fighter, and Alberto da Costa Belo, to challenge the Court's decision is to appeal to the higher court.

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Both Oan Ki’ak and Alberto were armed by the Defence Force to stabilise the country following the dysfunction of the Timorese National Police to maintain law and order in 2006.

“The only legal way is for the lawyer to lodge an appeal and make submission to the court so that the Court will process the case in accordance with the law. It is therefore inappropriate to make comments to the media,” Ms. Pinto said.

Ms. Pessoa made the comment following the statement by the lawyer for Florindo and Belo that he was dissatisfied with the recent decision made by the court to sentence Florindo to eight years and four months and Belo to six years and six months in prison.

Meanhile, in an extraordinary outburst reported by Televizaun Timor-Leste on March 11, 2010, the Timor-Leste Defence Force General (Falintil-FDTL) Commander Major General Taur Matan Ruak has said that members of the Defence Force are being criminalised for defending the country in times of war.

“Our Prime Minister Xanana was in the jungle defending his homeland and the Indonesian court convicted him as a criminal and now we are being criminalised as well for defending Timor,” Matan Ruak said Thursday in Metinaro, Dili.

He added that if defending the nation is a crime, then they would simply run away from defending the country in times of war.

He said that those who have big mouths today should be mindful of the sacrifices of the liberation army which brought good fortune for those who become ministers, presidents, and other important political positions.

“Those who have big mouths today should not forget that because of us defending the country they are now happy and hilarious …. as presidents, ministers, etc,”, said the two-star general.

He said that it is unacceptable for him that even after Timor-Leste gained its hard-fought independence, members of his defence force are still criminalised.

Recently the Dili District Court sentenced Frederico da Conceição Oan Ki’ak, a former guerilla fighter, and Alberto Belo eight and six years in prison respectively for an incident in May 2006.

Both Oan Ki’ak and Alberto were armed by the Defence Force to stabilise the country following the dysfunction of the Timorese National Police to maintain law and order in 2006.

In May 2006, many PNTL members joined F-FDTL deserters whose total was about half of the number of the defense force loyal to the government. The rebels were led by Major Alfredo Reinado Alves, who was then shot in a shoot-out at the resident of President Horta in early 2008.

Matan Ruak went on to harshly criticise the use of the Portuguese language in the Courts of East Timor, calling for the end of Portuguese in the judicial system because it caused difficulties for the people.

“As a General I ask all Timorese to join me in launching a big campaign to end the use of Portuguese in all Timorese courts,” said Matan Ruak.

Matan Ruak made the comment following the decision of the Dili District court where verdicts to sentence Oan Ki’ak and Alberto da Costa were read in Portuguese.

He said that the court should only use Tetun and other native languages in its proceedings.

Matan Ruak added that with the call for language change in the court, international judges, prosecutors, and lawyers should be able to speak Tetun, which is an official language of the country.

He urged that those who cannot speak Tetun should be replaced by Timorese to make the process easy for Timorese to comprehend.

Many Timorese judicial actors like lawyers, judges and public defenders, graduated from Indonesian law schools, making them competent in both Indonesian and Tetun.

Matan Ruak said that those cannot speak Portuguese should not be penalised for this reason as it was part of the history.

The Constitution adopts both Tetun and Portuguese as official languages of Timor while Indonesian and English are used as working languages in the country. Posted by : Voice of East Timor on 12 March 2010

Legal Body to Force Out Elder Judges, Prosecutors

Friday, 31 July 2009 15:03 VONG SOKHENG

But some say their absence could strain the court system.

A total of 27 senior judges, prosecutors and provincial court chiefs are set to retire following a meeting Wednesday of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy (SCM), which has enacted a little-used law mandating compulsory retirement at age 60.

Sam Pracheameanith, Cabinet chief in the Ministry of Justice and assistant secretary general of the SCM, said Wednesday that the retirements would be made official once a royal decree was issued by King Norodom Sihamoni, who chairs the council.

"Retirement is a part of [the government's] judicial reform programme, which aims at improving the judicial services in the Kingdom. It will not affect the current work of the courts," he said.

The Kingdom's 1999 Co-Statute on Civil Servants lists 60 as the mandatory retirement age for all government employees and civil servants, but the law has never been fully implemented for judicial officials.

Sam Pracheameanith said that the nine-member SCM, which includes prosecutors and judges from the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court and Phnom Penh Municipal Court, has also approved 63 graduate judges to undertake internships under the auspices of the SCM.

The SCM, as the Kingdom's chief judicial body, has the power to appoint, replace or disqualify any judge or prosecutor on the grounds of conflict of interest or incapacity.

The forced retirements announced Wednesday have drawn some criticism from legal and civil society observers.

Sok Sam Oeun, executive director of the Cambodian Defenders Project (CDP), said the judges should not have been forced to retire, since the government still claims it lacks the human resources to fully staff the court system.

"My point of view is that the old judges and prosecutors who had a lot of experience would have played a fairer role in bringing justice to society than the young graduate students," he said.

"I think that the government should have allowed the judges and prosecutors to continue their work if they do not want to retire, so that they can work with the young [judges]."

He said that in countries such as Thailand, judges and prosecutors who pass the age of retirement are given dispensations to be able to continue their work.

Hanrot Raken, a retired member of the SCM, reiterated concerns Wednesday that the forced retirement of judges and prosecutors could affect the work of the court system.

"I think that the replacements for the retired judges and prosecutors will not have enough experience to handle their cases ... and trials will lack justice," he said.

Stretched to the limit

Chiv Keng, president of Phnom Penh Municipal Court, told the Post this month that each judge was forced to handle between 600 and 700 cases per year but could only properly handle around 200.

The Appeal Court alone receives roughly 2,000 criminal and civil cases annually, he said.

Chan Saveth, a monitor at local rights NGO Adhoc, said the lack of human resources in the courts meant that individual judges had to handle at least 10 criminal cases per day.

"We are concerned that judges forced to handle 10 cases per day will not be able to ensure that justice is done," he said.

Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor at the local human rights group Licadho, added that the criminal cases currently being handled by the soon-to-be-retired judges might be delayed or abandoned by the courts in the confusion of the changeover.

But Sam Pracheameanith dismissed those concerns, saying that more than 200 judges are currently being trained, and that the ministry has carefully planned the retirements, spacing the resignations of senior court officials to ensure that the workings of the judiciary are not affected.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2009073127500/National-news/legal-body-to-force-out-elder-judges-prosecutors.html