Hotel protesters sentenced

DILI, East Timor: The Dili District Court sentenced yesterday three people involved in the March 23 demonstration in front of the Mahkota Hotel to one year in jail.

Antara reported that Mosito Braga Soares, 21, Cancio Antoni Hendriques Guteres, 26, and Alberto Da Costa, 22, accepted the ruling after considering that they only had to serve half the sentence after already being detained for six months.

The three are part of 33 being tried for the incident which saw one of Dili's major hotels damaged in the demonstration.

Sixteen of them were earlier sentenced to a year in jail while the remaining 14 are awaiting sentencing. (mds)