Law Faculty university students from the University of Peace (UNPAZ) wonder why the Dili District Court never applied a Community Services Sentence as part of their sentencing.
João Freitas, a student, said four types of sentencing are available to judges – prison terms, fines, suspended sentences and community services sentences.
“So far only prison terms, fines and suspended sentences have been applied but never community services sentences. We wonder why,” said student Freitas at Hotel Timor, in Dili.
The Presiding Judge and Administrator of the Dili District Court, Judge Duarte Tilman, said the court has not yet sentenced anyone to serve a community services sentence because the government has yet to create the legal framework for it.
Judge Duarte urged the government to prepare the right conditions as well as adequate supervised sites so the court can sentence someone to a community services sentence.
Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Justice, Ivo Valente, said currently the government was still preparing the right conditions for this and that it will require good inter-ministerial coordination.
“We need to involve the Ministry of Social Solidarity, the State Secretary for Security, and the Courts, and decide how to apply it,” said the Deputy Minister of Justice.
He added rules are also needed to determine who will supervise those sentenced to do community work as part of their sentence.
“Someone has to supervise whether the accused reports to cleaning duties every week or not and who will actually report this to the courts. The law already calls for these things but we still need to raise awareness of this so everyone knows his/her responsibilities. We will be able to apply this sentence in future,” said Deputy MP Valente.
