DEFENCE CALLS FOR DISMISSAL OF LOLOTOE TRIAL JUDGES
A major Crimes Against Humanity trial was suspended today after a
pro-autonomy militia commander's defence team accused the three-judge
Special Panel of pre-judgement and called for their dismissal.
The public defenders for Kaer Metin Merah Putih (KMP) militia commander
José Cardoso Ferreira - Sylvia de Bertodano and Câncio Xavier
- filed an
application with Judge Administrator Aderito Tilman calling for the Special
Panel for Serious Crimes to be excused.
Tilman is expected to rule on the application tomorrow morning.
The defence's move comes after it lost its bid yesterday to change the
court's use of the term "victim" to describe three alleged rape
victims who
will have their identities protected when they appear as witnesses.
De Bertodano argued that the charge of rape had yet to be proven against
her client, and that the terms "Victim A," Victim B" and
"Victim C" should
be changed to "Witness A," "Witness B" and "Witness
C." The motion was
turned down by the Special Panel in a 2-1 vote.
The Special Panel granted a separate application filed by the defence
today
calling for the trial to be suspended until the Judge Administrator's
ruling.
Cardoso Ferreira, fellow militia commander João França
da Silva and former
Guda village chief Sabino Gouveia Leite have been accused of waging a
campaign of deadly terror in Lolotoe sub-district during the months
surrounding a UN Popular Consultation on the future of East Timor.
The two KMP commanders are accused of illegal imprisonment, murder,
torture, rape, persecution and inhumane treatment of civilians in Lolotoe
sub-district, near the border of West Timor, Indonesia. Gouveia Leite
is
accused of being an accomplice in the offences committed by the KMP and
the
Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).
The Lolotoe case is the second of 10 priority cases to be tried by the
Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor. It is the first Crimes
Against Humanity case in East Timor to include charges of rape and charges
against superiors based on the actions of their subordinates.
The third priority case, known as the "Pasabe case," is scheduled
to begin
on Thursday, 7 March.