Courts | TSI dismisses appeal over teenager suicide

The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has dismissed an appeal request from the parents of a teenager found dead under the Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge 12 years ago.

The body of Luís Amorim was spotted on Avenida Dr. Sun Yat Sen, under the oldest bridge connecting Macau Peninsula and Taipa, at 3:40 a.m. On September 30, 2007. Doctors at Conde de São Januário Hospital believed, based on his post-mortem, that he had been killed by a torn aorta caused by falling from the bridge.

The Public Prosecution Office (MP) has conducted a total of three investigations into the case, but failed to determine the nature of Amorim’s death.

When the MP closed its investigation for the third time in 2012, the parents of Amorim filed a lawsuit at the Administrative Court against the government for MOP15 million in emotional compensation.

They held the justification that the investigation had been mishandled, as the nature of death was hastily determined as suicide. Law enforcement agencies had refused to conduct further inspection and another post-mortem.

On September 29, 2016, the Administrative Court ruled against the plaintiff, noting that there was no legal ground to sue the MP for civil compensation as it had carried out its judicial responsibility.

An appeal was afterwards filed to the TSI, which held the same view that the legal ground to sue the government for compensation was absent. In addition, the Court couldn’t see there were flaws in the investigative process. As a result, the TSI dismissed the request for appeal. Staff reporter