Officers of the Becora Police Station in Dili arrested seven individuals who were then charged with illegal gambling offences related to the sales of illegal coupons of SDSB, a popular game.
The seven suspects were handed over immediately to the Public Ministry so their cases could be heard at the Dili District Court (DDT).
The accusation by the Ministry of Public Prosecutions read out by the presiding-judge of the DDT stated that on 25 March 2014 at 7:30 p.m. officers of the Becora police station received information that behind the Becora health clinic the accused were handing over money from selling the illegal SDSB coupons to their boss.
The officers went to the crime scene and caught the seven accused but the boss managed to get away.
During the court proceedings only two of the seven accused provided declarations to the court.
Defendant MA told the court he handed 20 packs of SDSB coupons amounting to $287, each of coupon costing .75 cents. He also said he sold the SDSB coupons three times weekly.
He admitted to knowing the selling of the SDSB coupons is illegal but that he continued to do so as he is unemployed.
Defendant EC also admitted to the court that the accusation was correct and that he had only given eight packs of SDSB coupons amounting to $40. He said he had only started selling the coupons two weeks prior to his arrest.
After hearing the defendants the presiding-judge applied a one-year suspended sentence to defendants MA and EC and a two and a half year sentence to the other five defendants.
