PENAL CODE of the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste ANNEX PENAL CODE I - The restoration of independence and approval of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste in 2002 resulted in the need for the country to adopt its own legal system, one that is modern and enshrines fundamental rights as described in constitutional precepts and reflecting the social reality of the country. It was necessary to maintain the Indonesian Penal Code in force to provide the State with a valid criminal law, although the same proved to be inadequate to the new reality of the country and in many cases, called for legal remedies contrary to the new constitutional principles adopted. As the Timorese people have their own specificities and identity, there was a compelling need to prepare its own Penal Code, with its own intrinsic philosophy based on principles and values inherent to modern societies and that addresses current requirements faced by the country. A commission of Timorese and international experts was established by the 1st Constitutional Government, which proceeded to prepare a Draft Law for the Penal Code, which, even though the Law of Legislative Authorization on penal matters was approved, was unable to promulgate the former before the end of its legislative term. In early 2008, with a new executive, a new proposal for a Law of legislative authorization was presented to the National Parliament for approving the Penal Code and work to review the draft law of the Penal Code was restarted, the same having undergone amendments and been subject to broad public discussion. After approval of the legislative authorization, it fell to the Council of Ministers of the IV Constitutional Government to approve the Penal Code. II - The General Part constitutes Book I of the Penal Code, and integrates the fundamental principles of criminal law enshrined in the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, with international conventions, treaties and agreements adopted by the Timorese domestic legal system. As this code is based on the Democratic Rule of Law, in the General Part enshrines the principle of human dignity, respect for individual freedoms of each citizen and the responsibility of the State to intervene only when unsupportable harm to legal interests fundamental to life in society is observed. In such events, the State assumes the right to mete punishment and the social duty to reintegrate the offender into society. Equally the reflections of the Rule of Law are the principles of legality, culpability and humanity. The enshrinement of the principle of legality, as the fundamental principle of Criminal Law, provided for in article 31 of the Constitution, determines that any act or omission may only be considered a crime and punished as such, when and if provided for in law. Adherence to this principle results in disallowing any use of analogy when qualifying a crime, so that the Court cannot qualify any specific act as a crime, nor define danger to self and others or determine a penalty or security measure by applying an analogous interpretation of rules contained in the Penal Code. 3