JSMP PRESS
RELEASE
Sakunar Militia Leader in East Timor Sentenced for Crimes Against Humanity
JSMP: 9 June 2003
A former
militia commander from Oecussi East Timor, today was sentenced to seven
years for one count of murder as a crime against humanity in the Special
Panel for Serious Crimes of the Dili District Court in East Timor.
Quelo Mauno (otherwise known as Agostinho Atolan) aged approximately 42,
was the commander of the Sakunar Militia in Naetuna village, Passable
sub-district, Oecussi in 1999. He was arrested in November 2002 and charged
with the murder of Domingos Kolo who was found stabbed to death following
his capture by the Sakunar militia in September 1999 during the violence
which erupted following the East Timorese vote for independence in the
Popular Consultation.
The accused had entered a plea of guilty to the crime of murder as a crime
against humanity, which is a crime stipulated under Section 5.(1)(a) of
UNTAET Regulation 2000/15. The court's decision noted that in the absence
of a guilty plea a crime of this nature would ordinarily attract a sentence
of 14 years. However, in light of the accused's guilty plea, a sentence
of seven years was determined to be appropriate. According to provisions
in UNTAET Regulations and the Indonesian Penal Code the Special Panel
deducted six months and twenty three days from the sentence, representing
time already spent in detention.
The case was conducted in English, Bahasa Indonesia and the accused person's
dialect of Baikeno. The written decision was handed down by Judge Sylver
Ntukamazina, Judge Francisco Florit and Judge Maria Natercia Gusmao Pereira.
ENDS