The Timor-Leste Judges Association (AMTL) is urging the government to revise the country’s domestic violence law by adding a clause that would allow judges to facilitate conciliation in some cases.
AMTL President Antoninho Gonçalves said that if the law is amended then the court would have the power to initiate a conciliation process between the complainant and the accused in domestic violence cases if it was a first offence.
“If it is the first time the accused committed this crime, [then] we must give power to the court to initiate conciliation,” he said.
He said it was common for the complainant in domestic violence cases to make a declaration to court during the judgment process that the couple had already reconciled.
This situation means that the judges often hand down a suspended sentence to the accused, although this is no guarantee the accused will abide by the penalty.
“If they (the couple) have already completed the conciliation [process] and the accused reoffends, the court must make a judgment and the accused needs to go to prison,” he said.
He called on judges presiding over domestic violence cases to impose prison sentences of between one and six months as suspended sentences would not deter people from reoffending.
He said AMTL planned to submit a proposal to the government about this matter to permit the court to facilitate conciliation before sentencing the accused.
Meanwhile, national MP Eladio Faculto agreed with the initiative if the implementation of the law did not correspond to the needs of the community.
“We can reform [this law] because we all want to combat this crime,” he said.
However, Executive Director of Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP) Luis Oliveira Sampaio said that there has already been some progress in terms of the sentences handed down by the courts compared to 2013 when the law first came into force.
He cited a domestic violence case in Oecusse where the court imposed a one-year term of imprisonment to the accused because as he had already previously received a suspended sentence for the same offence.
“In another case in Dili there were two people imprisoned [for reoffending], so this is progress,” said Sampaio.
In another change courts have also begun to apply detention rules requiring those who have received a suspended sentence to report to police once a month or every three months, with those who fail to report ordered to reappear in court.
Sampaio said this indicated that good progress was being made as this had not been enforced for a long time.
