East Timor's former justice minister Lucia Lobato is in jail, after losing her last appeal against corruption charges. She was sentenced to five years in prison over contracts for prison equipment that were given to her husband.

The allegations surfaced in 2008 but she held her position as Justice Minister until last year, when she was voted out by Parliament and convicted in court.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speaker: Damien Kingsbury, from Deakin University's School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Kingsbury: It's a really important symbolic victory for the fight against corruption, when you nail a minister of a government I think that what that shows is that nobody is above the law, that nobody's sacred if you like. And that it was the Justice Minister in particular I think was particularly noteworthy. Now I have spoken to a number of people in East Timor about this matter, particularly in the Anti-Corruption Commission, and they have identified some other former parliamentarians, possibly ministers, who are being investigated. So the anti-corruption drive if you like is continuing pretty much full steam ahead.

Cochrane: What about the political dimensions of this particular case with Lucia Lobato, I mean she was a member of PSD [NOTE: The original interview mistakenly identified Lucia Lobato as being a Fretilin member – Radio Australia apologises for the error] which lost the last election against Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's CNRT party. Her cousin, Rogerio Lobato was a former Fretilin heavyweight accused of fuelling the violence in 2006. Do we need to consider broader political motives that might be at play here?

Kingsbury: No I don't think so. No I think the previous government would have been very happy to have kept Lucia Lobato in the ministry had she not been convicted of corruption. So the issue was really not about politics playing out about trying to attack somebody for their political affiliations or allegiances, but really it was simply a case of the judicial process functioning in the manner that it was really expected of it publicly. You've got to keep in mind too there's been a very public anti-corruption campaign in East Timor, for a couple of years there have been posters around the streets of Dili and other places saying combat corruption, fight corruption, part of a public education campaign. And the Anti-Corruption Commission which was established a couple of years ago has been increasingly active. It's taken some time to setup of course and to start conducting investigations, but it's a pretty high-powered outfit for East Timor. And I think that it indicates that the government is taking the whole issue quite seriously.

Cochrane: Now these corruption charges against Lucia Lobato related to the purchase of prison equipment, part of that was prison uniforms. Would it be a stretch to think that she is now wearing one of those same uniforms that got her into trouble in the first place?

Kingsbury: Yeah look there's a number of ironies in this. The fact that she was Justice Minister and ended up being convicted of corruption is the first irony. The second irony of course is that she's now in a prison which she was responsible for, and as you say, possibly wearing one of the uniforms that she corruptly purchased. So there is a degree of irony. But look it is really, really important for a country like East Timor to ensure that corruption is kept certainly under control and indeed eradicated if possible. There's historically a culture of patron-client relations which is common in many developing countries, and distinguishing that from corruption at times can be difficult, and sometimes people have a bit of difficulty in working out what's really just doing a favour for somebody you know, as opposed to what's corruption. But ultimately and particularly at senior levels of government, there are more clear cut cases in Timor really that do have to start setting examples that or being shown to set examples, and I think the conviction and now jailing of Lucia Lobato is a very good example of that.

Cochrane: You mentioned other cases that are pending that may involve ministers as well. Are there any public details on who is being targeted?

Kingsbury: No, no there've been some hints about who is being investigated but no, nothing formally said publicly, and it would be inappropriate I think to mention any names given that these are continuing investigations.