2017 AL election | TSI confirms sentence of former candidate charged with aggravated disobedience

The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has ruled in favor of maintaining the sentence handed down by the Court of First Instance (TJB) for the crime of aggravated disobedience by a former Legislative Assembly (AL) election candidate related to the 2017 election campaign.
During the campaign period for the 2017 elections, the second candidate from List 12 – Power of Citizens (Poder dos Cidadãos), Joana Chong, failed to comply with the rules, which state that all campaign promotion materials must be removed before the voting day, including those posted on social media.
According to the ruling of the TJB, the candidate had failed to remove such material from her Facebook page, thus committing the crime of aggravated disobedience.
Sentenced to four months of imprisonment suspended for one year, the former candidate appealed the sentence by claiming that she was on the mainland at the time, so she could not access social media to remove the campaign materials.
The TSI ruled against the allegations, noting that she was aware of the rules and consequences of failing to remove the campaign materials on time. The court added that, since the page had been created and maintained by members of her list group, any person in Macau could have removed the content on her behalf, even if she could not have done it personally.
Addressing the suggestion that the TJB’s sentence was disproportionate, the TSI also noted that, according to the law provisions, crimes regarding election campaigns are considered a “very serious social matter which justifies the high demands on the general prevention of crimes relates to the elections to the Legislative Assembly,” the ruling states. The TSI further noted that the sentence handed down was considered to be adequate.