Land dispute in Suai leads to violence and court proceedings

On 05 August 2011 the Suai District Court tried Case No. 23/PEN/2011/TDS involving a land dispute.

This trial was presided over by judge Jose Maria de Araujo (Presiding Judge at the Suai District Court), while the Public Prosecution Unit was represented by Zélia Trindade and the defendant was represented by Public Defender João Henrique de Carvalho.

The defendant GFG was charged with committing the crime of light maltreatment against the victim JDP. The incident occurred because the defendant ordered the National Directorate of Land and Property to measure the victim’s land, and at that time the victim was not at home. The victim’s wife phoned the victim to inform him that GFG had come to measure their land with a representative from the National Directorate of Land and Property, so the victim immediately came to that location and when JDP arrived at the scene the defendant leaped towards the victim and pushed the victim JDP in the chest and used his hand to strike the victim twice on the cheek.

The public prosecutor charged the defendant under Article 145 of the Penal Code on light maltreatment. The court explained to the two parties that Article 106.3 of the Penal Code stipulates that this case is a semi-public crime of which the prosecution can only be initiated after the right to file complaint has been exercised, and the court adjourned the hearing for 20 minutes to allow the parties to engage in conciliation.

When the hearing continued the victim JDP told the court that he had forgiven the defendant and requested for the defendant not to repeat such acts against others in the future.

After hearing the statement of the victim, pursuant to Article 71 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Article 107 of the Penal Code (on the bearers of the right to file complaint), the court validated this amicable settlement.