Commission Against Corruption, Macao SAR

The Court of First Instance today (1st March) adjudicated a CCAC-investigated case of forging and using fake certificates by civil servants. All the three defendants were found guilty.

The first defendant, José Filipe Nunes Dourado, a former staff of the Port Authority, was ordered to pay a 90-day fine of MOP4,500 for using forged doctor's certificate (commonly known as "sick-leave certificate"). He will be jailed for 60 days in case he fails to pay the fine. The second defendant, Américo Martins de Jesus, a colleague of the first defendant, was ordered to pay a 100-day fine of MOP5,000 for forging certificate and will be jailed for 66 days in case he fails to pay the fine. The third defendant, João José Arrobas Cardoso das Neves, a former supervising doctor of orthopedics at Hospital Centre S. Januario, was convicted of forging certificate even though he failed to attend court. He was sentenced to 7 months' imprisonment with a suspension of 18 months.

The case occurred in April 1999. The first defendant made use of the friendship between the second defendant (his colleague) and the third defendant's (doctor) son and asked the second defendant to arrange for him a doctor's certificate issued by that doctor. In reality, the first defendant was not sick on that day nor had he visited the doctor. He merely made use of the sick leave to travel to Hong Kong on that day. After investigating and collecting evidence, the CCAC referred the case to the Public Prosecutions Office in November 2000.

The case was tried in late February 2005. The first and the second defendants admitted the charges while the third defendant failed to attend court. The judge made the above-mentioned conviction this afternoon after hearing testimonies from the defendants and the witnesses, etc.