07 October 2013

Trial in Baucau District Court adjourned because no interpreter available for local dialect

ETLJB 07 October 2013 - On 12 September 2013 the Baucau District Court was unable to conduct a trial in a case involving the crime of simple offences against physical integrity that was registered as Case No. 87/Crm.S/2013/TDB, because no interpreter was available to provide interpretation from the local dialect of Makalero into Tetum.

This case involved the defendant JM who allegedly committed the offence against the victim MP on 13 September 2012 in Lautem District.

“JSMP observed that the issue of interpreters is a classic problem that continues to occur, and for this reason JSMP requests for the competent institutions to pay serious attention to this issue to ensure that trials can be conducted appropriately”, said the Executive Director of JSMP, Luis de Oliveira Sampaio.

To anticipate such circumstances the court stated that for the next hearing the court will send an official letter to the Sub-District Administrator of Iliomar to provide a person who has good knowledge of Tetum and the dialect of Makalero to provide interpretation on the scheduled date because most of the parties involved do not speak Tetum.

The witness MS spoke to JSMP and was very upset because he has lost a lot of time and spent a lot of money on travel and food during the trial, to fulfill the interests of others.

The court decided to adjourn the trial of this criminal case until 6 November 2013 at 10 am.

This hearing was presided over by single judge Afonso Carmona, the Public Prosecution Service was represented by Baltazar Ramos (international prosecutor) and the defendant was represented by Public Defender Rui Manuel Guterres. Source: JSMP Press Release 13 September 2013Edited by Warren L. Wright

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