The Dili Municipal Court (DMC) heard a case of domestic violence involving a simple integrity crime where the accused BL (brother) slapped the victim SF (sister) for talking back to his wife (sister-in-law).
Based on the accusation by the Ministry of Public Prosecutions, in April 2014, at 8 in the morning the accused BL’s wife was looking for her shoes so she asked her daughter to go to the victim SF’s room to look for them. She found them to be there.
BL’s wife told the victim that before using her things to ask permission first and to not just take it. The victim SF told the wife that she had not used any of her things.
The wife did not accept this answer because the shoes were in the victim’s room. An argument between the wife and the husband’s sister ensued and the shouting attracted the attention of the neighbours who came to look at what was happening. Feeling ashamed the accused BL shouted at the wife and sister to be quiet. He proceeded to enter the sister’s room where he slapped and kicked her.
After being hit the victim SF went to her aunt’s house in Vilaverde, in Dili, and they both went to the police station to report what had happened.
After reading the accusation, the presiding judge asked the accused to make a statement. The accused BL said that he had not intended to hit anyone but they would not stop arguing.
He intended to hit the wife but she was sick so instead he went to ask the sister to be quiet but she wouldn’t so he became nervous and hit her.
“I asked her to be quiet but wouldn’t so I hit my sister. But I slapped her gently only for her to quiet up,” he said.
He added that a week after the incident he went looking for the sister and apologized and took her back in.
After hearing the declarations of the accused, the presiding judge sentenced him to a two year suspended sentence with a warning that any other incident would land him in jail.
