Quarantine violators to face jail

Two Macau local residents will face jail sentences for breaking their quarantine, according to a statement released by the Court of Final Appeal.
The defendant in the first case returned to Macau on March 14. The defendant’s family member fetched the defendant from the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to a designated hotel for quarantine.
On March 23, the convicted resident temporarily left the quarantine hotel room, visited the hotel lobby and then spent approximately 20 minutes with a friend inside the concerned quarantine room.
The Court of First Instance (TJB) said that “considering the high transmission level of Covid-19, and in order to prevent crimes, the court believes that a penalty will not be sufficient” for purposes of imposing a punishment.
The court believes that jail will be a more suitable punishment. Therefore, the first defendant was found guilty and has been given a two-month jail sentence and will be suspended for a year.
Pursuant to the same legal grounds, the TJB also gave the second defendant an imprisonment.
The second convicted person returned to Macau on March 17 from the Hong Kong-Macau port of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. Afterwards, he did not go through home quarantine as requested. Instead, he left Macau immediately for mainland China.
On March 24, the Public Security Police Force inspected the man’s house and confirmed that he had already left Macau.
The court stated that it gave the second defendant a three-month jail sentence in order to prevent more people from “duplicating the irresponsible and selfish deeds.”
This marks the first two cases in Macau where people have been sentenced to jail for not strictly following government orders during the Covid-19 pandemic. Currently, six similar cases are scheduled for trial.
In law No.2/2004, it is prescribed that any individual confirmed to have an infectious disease, suspected of being infected, or at risk of being diagnosed with infectious disease, is subject to a maximum of six months in prison if that person is convicted of contravening the regulation or committing an offence.
The TJB referred to the aforementioned law as the legal ground behind the two sentences.