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Portugal, East Timor negotiating new protocol for judicial cooperation

Xinhua, July 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal and East Timor are negotiating a new protocol for judicial cooperation, Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rui Machete, revealed on Friday.

"Justice is important in the framework of relations between both countries and our efforts will go towards resuming cooperation in justice, which will necessarily be based on renewed assumptions," Machete said at a press conference at the end of a meeting with his East Timor counterpart Hernani Coelho, at the Necessidades palace here.

The East Timor government in November last year ordered immigration services to expel international court clerks within a 48-hour time-frame, including five judges, a prosecutor and a police official of Portuguese nationality, according to Portuguese Lusa News Agency.

The following month, parliament approved a resolution suspending the contracts of around 50 international court clerks, most of them Portuguese, sparking controversy among non-governmental organizations and lawyers.

"Situations like those of 2014 cannot, and will not, be repeated, and that will be recorded in a document agreement between the ministries of justice of Portugal and East Timor," Machete said. Endit