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Exclusive: Timor PM protecting 'corrupt' Cabinet members
Sydney Morning Herald - November 26, 2014
The report, by Darwin-based barrister Alistair Wyvill SC, said the extraordinary sacking of the judges, attorneys and anti-corruption advisers was part of an escalating campaign by Mr Gusmao that threatens the safety of judicial officers still in the country.
Last month, at the urging of Mr Gusmao, Timor's parliament passed resolutions to expel the judicial officers, justifying the dramatic step on the alleged ineptitude of the judges and the courts' handling of contentious tax cases involving US oil giant ConocoPhillips.
But Mr Wyvill's report found that it seemed none of the eight foreign judges and advisers forced to leave East Timor, also known as Timor Leste, had any involvement in the tax cases.
"Almost every 'insider' to whom I have spoken who is independent of the East Timor Leste government (including the judges to whom I spoke) connects these events with the corruption cases," he wrote.
"This view is supported by the fact that the trial against the Minister for Finance, Emilia Pires, was due to start on Monday 27 October, the next working day after the resolutions were passed. As a result of these resolutions, the trial did not proceed."
Eight members of East Timor's Cabinet are, or have been, under investigation for corruption.
Mr Wyvill said it was possible that Mr Gusmao, aided by intimidating "veterans" of the East Timorese independence struggle, was orchestrating a wider campaign against those members of the judiciary who remain in Timor.
"It is not my intention to be overly dramatic but from what I saw it is just not possible to rule out the risk of danger to the lives and wellbeing of these judges and their families as the current crisis develops," his report, obtained by Fairfax Media, says.
The report, completed after a three day visit to East Timor this month, was produced for the Northern Territory Bar Association. It has been handed to the Judicial Conference of Australia, the body that represents Australia's judges. The Law Council of Australia and Australian Bar Association have also received the report.
A spokesperson for East Timor government did not return calls. Government sources in Dili have previously told Fairfax Media that the spate of corruption cases is linked to an attempt to destabilise the government by prosecutors and judges supportive of opposition parties.
Justice Stephen Rares, president of the Judicial Conference of Australia, said the organisation would be digesting the report in coming days.
"The report raises matters of considerable concern," he said. "If that version of events [in Mr Wyvill's report] is correct, there would be a real problem affecting how the impendence of the judiciary in East Timor is being maintained and respected. It also would amount to a serious departure from that country's constitutional protection of its judges' independence."
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