17 October 2013

Prisoner apparently commits suicide in East Timor jail

ETLJB 17 October 2013 - The man accused of murdering Cristovao de Jesus was found dead in his cell in Becora prison last Thursday, 10 October 2013 according to a report by daily media Independente.


Mr Cristovao was a soldier in East Timor's Defence Force and was killed in the capital Dili in August last year. It was initially believed that the soldier had been stoned to death but an autopsy showed that he had been struck on the head with a hammer and an iron bar after he had attended a family wedding party in the Dili suburb of Quintal Boot.

The prisoner, Mateus Moniz da Silva, is believed to have committed suicide by hanging himself after the first hearing of the accusation of murder against him in the Dili District Court on Wednesday, 09 October.

The newspaper reported comments by the Becora Prison warden, Joao Domingos, that Mateus did not show any signs that he was suicidal but during a cell check by prison guards, his body was discovered.

However, the family of the deceased man does not believe that Mateus hung himself and has called on the Becora prison administration to produce evidence that he committed suicide.

According to another report in Independente on 16 October 2013, the man's family went to the Natioanal Parliament Committee B on Security to request the Committee's support in investigating the case.

”We are here to seek for the truth because we do not believe Mateus committed suicide in Becora prison because when we arrived at Becora prison the dead body has been taken by the police and we did not see the prisoners’ guard releasing him from the rope that he used to hang himself,” Family spokesman, Joao de Jesus Freitas said after meeting with Committee the B.


According the the report in Independente, there have been "many suicide cases" in 2013.


Source: Independente, 11 October 2013; Independente 16 October 2013 via TLMDC Edited by Warren L. Wright

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