January to April 2012: 26 cases submitted to Court of Appeals

From January until April 2012 a total of 26 cases were submitted to the Court of Appeals (TR), in Dili.

“In 2012 we should have 26 cases but if we add to those pending cases 73 from 2011 then we have a total of 99 cases. We have final decisions on 50 of those cases but there are still 49 cases still pending at the Court of Appeals,” said the Judicial Secretary at the TR, Maria de Fatima, last week (09/05) in Kaikoli, Dili.

She added judges are trying hard to set up the panel of judges to hear and pass judgement on the remaining pending cases.
“For a trial there needs to be a panel of judges composed of one international judge and two national judges. We will try hard to judge all the cases,” said JS Fatima.

Meanwhile Member of Parliament (MP) Aderito Hugo said there are many cases pending at the TR due to limited human resources available.

“Time is required to prepare adequate prosecutors and judges. We don’t even have 20 judges in total at the court. It is understandable why there are so many pending cases. There is a lack of human resources,” said MP Hugo.