Victor Manuel Alves

Victor Manuel Alves is a politician from East Timor .

Career

Alves served in the Portuguese army during the colonial days.

In 1999, Alves paid the local Indonesian military chief of Atauro 90 million rupees to prevent the armed forces from wreaking havoc on the island, as happened in the rest of East Timor during the Indonesian withdrawal. Indeed, on September 20th, the troops withdrew peacefully. Alves was also given three assault rifles. Until the arrival of the INTERFET troops , however, there was a power vacuum in which pro-Indonesian groups and independence advocates faced each other. On September 23, a meeting was held on Beloi Beach , at which Alves called for reconciliation between the groups in front of the village leaders. In response to rumors that some people were planning to burn down the home of former Beloi boss and Indonesian collaborator Antonio Miguel Pacheco, Alves threatened to shoot anyone who planned violence. Otherwise he spoke in a conciliatory manner and his speech was well received and apparently convinced most of the audience. The meeting was almost over when Pacheco arrived. Pachero now accused Alves that he was behind the plans to burn his house down. Alves now picked up one of the rifles that he had brought to the meeting. Pacheco shouted that if Alves was a man he should shoot him. Alves got enraged and shot twice in the air. Pacheco kept screaming and turning as if to leave. Then a third shot hit him in the head and killed him. There are different details about the circumstances. If witnesses initially stated that Alves had shot Pachero, they declared at the 2004 trial that they either did not see the shot themselves or that Alves turned the rifle on his shoulder and a shot was then released that accidentally hit Pachero.

Alves remained in custody from December 2000 to May 2001. The trial in the Dili District Court's Special Panels for Serious Crimes SPSC began in May 2004. The charges were murder. The verdict is manslaughter. Due to the circumstances, Alves was only obliged to pay compensation to the victim's family and was sentenced to one year imprisonment, which was suspended to two years probation. The Court of Appeals increased the sentence to two years in prison in 2005. Alves was taken into custody, but President Xanana Gusmão pardoned Alves after a month with presidential decree 16/2005. The court case is an example of criticism due to its unusual course. The witnesses were not protected from threats and the trial was not specially secured. Alves is considered an influential man.

In the parliamentary elections on June 30, 2007 , Alves stood for the União Nacional Democrática de Resistência Timorense (UNDERTIM) in 13th place on the list, but the party only received two seats. In the new elections in 2012 , Alves did not run.

In 2012, Alves was delegated to the Council of State for five years as Parliament's envoy . The term of office ended in 2017.

Alves is the adoptive father and uncle of the rebel Alfredo Alves Reinado .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} District Court of Dili: The Deputy General Prosecutor for Serious Crimes v. Victor Manuel Alves , accessed July 30, 2019.
2. ^ ^{A b} David Cohen: Indifference and Accountablitiy - The United Nations and the Politics of International Justive in East Timor , East West Center Special Reports Number 9, June 2006.
3. ↑ International Crimes Data Base: The Deputy General Prosecutor for Serious Crimes v. Victor Manuel Alves , accessed July 30, 2019.
4. ↑ Jornal da República: DECRETO PRESIDENTE 16/2005 , accessed on July 30, 2019.
5. ↑ The Cambodia daily: Media-Shy Judge Assumes Mantle of Independence , March 3, 2011 , accessed July 30, 2019.
6. ↑ List of candidates from the STAE (PDF; 819 kB), accessed on July 29, 2019.
7. ↑ Jornal da República: RESOLUÇÃO DO PARLAMENTO 15/2007 August 27, 2007 , accessed on July 26, 2019.
8. ↑ RTP: Parlamento de Timor-Leste elege novos elementos para órgãos consultivos do PR , August 28, 2007 , accessed on July 26, 2019.
9. ↑ The Australian, February 13, 2008, Reinado's father in the dark over killing ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Reuters, February 13, 2008, East Timor seeking arrests over assassination attempts