Departure of international judge means Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor unable to function
With the departure of Judge Benfeito Mosso Ramos (from Cape Verde) on Sunday 6 April 2003 there are now insufficient judges for the Special Panels for Serious Crimes to carry out trials in East Timor. Under UNTAET Regulations the Special Panels must be comprised of two international judges and one East Timorese judge, with the only remaining international judge being Judge Sylver Ntukamazina from Burundi. An exception is made for preliminary hearings and detention hearings.
Three other international Judges in East Timor, Judge Francisco Florit and Judge Siegfried Blunk and Dora Martins de Morais have not yet been sworn in due to a lack of agreement on the process for the appointment of the President of the Court of Appeal. The President of the Court of Appeal, together with other members of the Superior Council of the Judiciary will then be responsible for appointing the new judges.
Additionally, the departure of Judge Benfeito will seriously affect a number of trials in which he was involved. These trials will now need to be restarted. This includes the long running trial of Lino de Carvalho, a militia leader from the sub District of Batugade in Bobonaro District originally indicted on 25 April 2001. In an amended indictment Lino de Carvalho has been charged with crimes against humanity, including one count of murder and two counts of inhumane acts. The preliminary hearing in this case commenced almost two years ago. The procedure for recommencing a trial in the Special Panels is not clear.
According to JSMP, the necessity to restart the trials is of concern for two reasons. It denies the accused a fair trial and also demonstrates poor planning in the use of the court’s limited resources, as the Lino Carvalho trial has already been running for almost two years.
JSMP has also highlighted the long standing failure to operationalise the Superior Council of the Judiciary. “This failure is unacceptable and requires immediate action so that the Special Panels for Serious Crimes and the Appeals Court can once again become functional. It is unacceptable that East Timor has not had a Court of Appeal for almost eighteen months.”
Under UNTAET Regulation 11/2000 and 15/2000 the Special Panels for Serious Crimes of the Dili District Court has jurisdiction to try serious criminal offences of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual offences and torture. For offences of murder, of a sexual nature and torture the crimes must have been committed beween 1 January 1999 and 25 October 1999.