The Court of First Instance has acquitted a Portuguese couple accused of the crime of money laundering, Álvaro Rodrigues’ lawyer for Tiago and Fong Fong Guerra told Lusa.
The case had dragged on since 2014, in an action based on the East Timor process and the letters rogatory following requests for information made to Macau, involving an amount of almost 900 thousand euros.
“We are satisfied with the result. Justice was finally done”, the couple’s lawyer told Lusa, who in East Timor had already been acquitted in another case, after being sentenced to eight years in prison in 2017, for embezzlement, and to compensation to the State.
The couple were detained by Timorese police in Dili on 18 October 2014.
While awaiting the decision on appealing the Dili District Court’s sentence, maintaining their innocence and accusing the Court of First Instance and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of various irregularities, the couple fled to Australia, where they arrived, by boat, on November 9, 2017, having arrived in Lisbon on the 25th of November of that year.
The two Portuguese were tried for the crimes of embezzlement, money laundering and document forgery, with a transfer of US$859,000 (792,000 euros) being central to the case, made in 2011 at the request of US consultant Bobby Boye.
Boye was a paid consultant for the Norwegian Government and later for the Timorese Government. He was even co-accused in the process, having been, however, convicted in the United States, where he is serving his sentence.
The couple’s flight caused diplomatic tension between Portugal and Timor-Leste, with the matter drawing criticism from political leaders and civil society, with articles even demanding investigations from the Portuguese embassy in Dili.
Following the couple’s flight, the Timorese Public Ministry accused another Portuguese and two Timorese of various crimes, including money laundering, for allegedly supporting the couple’s flight.
This process is still ongoing at the Dili District Court.
