Dili court to arrest witnesses

Dili court to arrest witnesses

DILI: District court prosecutors plan to arrest four witnesses
to the Nov. 17, 1996 beating of Gaudensius Mau, the local
correspondent of a Jakarta-based news weekly.

They said yesterday the witnesses had ignored three summonses
without reason, hampering the trials of the four people charged
with beating up the Tiras magazine journalist.

The action against the witnesses, Eduardo Concelino, Delia
Soares Marten Sarmento, Lita Lay Freitas and Angelina Thomas
Ximenes, was announced by prosecutor Bambang Riyanto.

Gaudensius was beaten up in Dili by a group of strangers who
allegedly mistook him for a police informant.

The witnesses' refusal to answer the summonses forced the
court to adjourn the trial, Antara reported.

Charged with assaulting Gaudensius are Jose Antonio Soares,
aged 23, Jaime De Jesus Rebeiro Verdial, 16, Americo Seroa, 20,
and Jacob Fernandes, 20. (pan)