The Special Panels for Serious Crimes (also called the East Timor Tribunal) was the hybrid international–

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

ese tribunal that was created in 2000 by the

United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), ( pt, Administração Transitória das Nações Unidas em Timor Leste), was a United Nations mission in East Timor that aimed to solve the decades long East Timorese cri ...

(UNTAET) to try cases of "serious criminal offences" which took place in East Timor in 1999. The Special Panels sat from 2000 to 2006.

Mandate

The Special Courts were mandated by the Special Representative of the

UN Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary-g ...

to try the following categories of crimes: * Genocide * War crimes * Crimes against humanity * Murder * Sexual offences * Torture To be eligible for investigation in front of the Special Panels the alleged crimes had to be committed in Timor-Leste or by/against a citizen of Timor Leste.

Structure

Until 2003, there was generally only one panel of the court. In 2003, a second and a third panel were organised. Each of the panels was composed of two international judges and one East Timorese judge. International judges came from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Burundi, Cape Verde,

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Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

, and the

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Trials

Shortly after the Special Panels was formed, the Serious Crimes Unit was also created by UNTAET to investigate and prosecute the crimes in question. The Special Panels issued

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...

s for almost 400 people. A major hurdle in trying some of the accused was that they were

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n nationals and the government of

refused to turn them over to East Timor or the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

forces. Special Panels held 55 trials involving 88 accused persons. Four persons were acquitted and 84 were convicted, with 24 of the 84 pleading guilty. When the United Nations ceased funding the Special Panels and the Serious Crimes Unit, there were 514 outstanding cases for which investigations had been conducted but no indictments issued and 50 cases for which no investigations had yet been conducted. These cases which were not tried include 828 cases of alleged murder, 60 alleged cases of rape, and over 100 cases of alleged torture or other serious violence.

Liquiçá Church Massacre

The second Special Panel heard testimony on the Liquiçá Church Massacre. The panel was made up of Judge Benfeito Mosso Ramos (Cape Verde) presiding, Judge Antero Luis (Portugal), and Judge Antonio Helder (East Timor).

Other cases

Court problems

The Special Panels were criticised for the lack of ownership by East Timor. They suffered from a crisis in funding and a lack of support for the trials. Indonesia did not cooperate with the court and as most of the alleged perpetrators were from Indonesia this affected the court's ability to convict offenders. There were criticisms of the process which included suggestion the trials fell short of international standards.

References

*Caitlin Reiger and Marieke Wierda (2006). ''The Serious Crimes Process in Timor-Leste: In Retrospect'' (New York: International Center for Transitional Justice) {{authority control United Nations courts and tribunals United Nations operations in East Timor Law of East Timor War crimes trials