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Díli, February 18, 2014
Press Release
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of February 18th, 2014
The Government gathered, last Tuesday, February 18th, 2014, at the Council of Ministers meeting room, at the Government Palace, in Dili, and approved:
1. Government Resolution approving the establishment of the Preparatory Committee for the CPLP Summit
As we approach the Summit of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), which will be held in Dili in July, opening the first biennial Presidency (2014-2016) of Timor-Leste in this international organization, the Government decided to establish a Preparatory Committee for the CPLP summit, which will be chaired by Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo.
This Committee has the main mission of proposing and organizing the issues to develop during the July meeting, reflecting what should happen over the next two years. It is intended firstly, to clearly understand the effectiveness and outcomes of the programs implemented to date in each beneficiary country in the context of bilateral or multilateral cooperation, and, secondly, programmatically direct the eight member countries for a common purpose, namely to the economic sector, which aims to minimize the socio-political-economic differences between the CPLP member countries.
Due to the late approval of the State Budget for 2014, the Committee will have, in practice, four months to plan and prepare or the summit, which should take place on 20 to 25th July this year.
2. Draft Law on the Organization of Criminal Investigation
This law establishes the rules of organization and competence for criminal investigation of various criminal police bodies acting in the administration of justice, having as main objectives to ensure the functional stability of the criminal investigation, to clarify, streamline and operationalize the organization of criminal investigation, to delimit the scope of the technical and tactical autonomy of the police and divide the responsibilities among the various criminal police bodies, and create a mechanism for strategic and operational coordination of the criminal investigation, in their different hierarchical levels.
3. Decree-Law that approves the Organic Structure of Forensic Criminal Investigation Police
This Decree-Law provides for the establishment of a Forensic Criminal Investigation Police as an upper body independent of the police, depending organically on the Ministry of Justice and functionally on the Office of the Prosecutor General, that monitors this Police, that has technical and tactical autonomy in carrying out criminal investigations, assisting the judicial authorities.
The creation of the Forensic Criminal Investigation Police will enable faster and more effective functioning of the criminal investigation, resulting in better administration and implementation of justice and consequently giving the people a greater sense of trust.