(TIMOR-LESTE)
Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News) [Hong Kong]
May 27, 2025
By UCA News reporter
Rights activists hail President Horta for not pardoning Richard Daschbach, say decision ‘honors voices of survivors’
Timor-Leste’s president has rejected a plea for clemency submitted on behalf of a former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing minors, despite a government recommendation.
Richard Daschbach, a defrocked American, was among 38 people considered for the presidential executive clemency, according to the country’s justice ministry. The 88-year-old is serving a 12-year sentence for sexually abusing young Timor girls under his care at a remote orphanage.
President José Ramos-Horta, on May 27, confirmed at a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Dili that Daschbach was not included on his annual list of prisoner pardons, which was granted to six individuals.
“The government usually submits a long list of clemency recommendations,” Horta said. “But I focus on what I believe is just.”
The president said that after consulting the director of prison services, the minister of justice, and, most importantly, the victims, he had approved clemency for six individuals, among them five females and one male.
The president’s disclosure was hailed by rights advocates and survivors’ support groups, who have long called for justice in the Daschbach case.
The American priest was a highly respected figure in the tiny Catholic-majority nation for his long-time missionary work in Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
He also supported Timorese independence and was known to have close ties with its political leadership, including the current prime minister Xanana Gusmão.
In 2018, he became the first Catholic priest charged with multiple child abuse at the Topu Honis orphanage that he founded in the Oecusse enclave, just across Indonesia.
He reportedly admitted to the crimes during an investigation by the Church authorities.
The Vatican defrocked him from the priesthood, and his religious order, the Society of Divine Word (SVD), expelled him after the allegations were found to be true.
Following a lengthy legal battle that drew global attention, he was sentenced to 12 years in jail in 2021.
Zo Corbafo, a prominent human rights activist based in Dili, called the president’s decision “justice speaking loud, and silence breaking.”
“This decision honors the voices of survivors. It affirms that no one is above the law, regardless of their status, age, or former title. This is not an act of vengeance, but a critical step toward collective healing,” he told UCA News.
Corbafo said the victory belonged to “every survivor who spoke out despite fear, to every ally who stood firm, and to every heart that refused to be silent.”
Juridico Social Consultoria (JU’S), the legal aid organization representing 15 survivors of Daschbach’s abuse, said several testified in the trials held in 2019 and 2021 in Oecusse. Two victims gave testimony in the United States, citing their dual citizenship status.
The court ultimately convicted Daschbach of six counts of sexual abuse of minors.
The inclusion of his name on the clemency list by the justice ministry had drawn harsh criticism and was viewed as a betrayal of justice and a blow to survivors.