Macau, China, 22 Oct – The president of the Court of Final Appeal (TUI) Sam Hou Fai Of said Wednesday that from the 126,082 cases processed by the three Courts in Macau between 2000 and 2009, a total of 115,826 cases had judgments delivered.
The president of the Court of Final Appeal made the announcement in his speech during the ceremony for the start of the new Macau Judicial Year.
According to Sam Hou Fai, among the 115,826 cases resolved, a total of 388 judgments were delivered by the Court of Final Appeal, 4,296 by the Court of Second Instance (TSI) and 111,142 by the Lower Court and Administrative Court (TA) that are part of the Court of First Instance (TJB).
Sam also said that of the 126,082 cases processed, a total of 398 cases were handled by the Court of Final Appeal, 4,856 cases by the Court of Second Instance and 120,828 cases by the Lower Court and Administrative Court of the Court of First Instance.
Meanwhile, of the 18,437 cases resolved by the courts in the Judicial Year of 2008/2009, 64 cases were resolved by the Court of Final Appeal, 948 by the Court of Second Instance and the rest by the Court of First Instance.
"There are still about 13,000 cases in the Court of First Instance that remain unresolved," Jorge Neto Valente, president of the Macau Lawyers Association (AAM), said during the ceremony.
"Since the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) has been in place for ten years, it is intolerable for this kind of situation to deteriorate further," Valente said, adding "These facts and numbers should tell civic society and the authorities that we cannot maintain the current situation."
The president of TUI said the delay in processing cases was due to a "serious" lack of judges.
"Although only five judges have been added between 2002 and the last Judicial Year, the number of cases in the three courts have increased from 8,651 in 2002 to 18,437 in that period," Sam said, adding there were currently only 28 judges in the three courts.
Meanwhile, according to The Macau Post Daily, Tong Chi Kin, spokesperson for the Executive Council said Wednesday that the council finished discussion of a bylaw, which would see the addition of one more criminal court to the Lower Court, and consider the appointment of five new judges and two more presidents of the Lower Court’s collegiate bench.
(MacauNews)
