East Timor to deliver verdicts in murder plots

An East Timorese court planned to announce verdicts Wednesday in the trial of 28 alleged rebels accused of plotting to assassinate the fledgling democracy's president and prime minister.

President Jose Ramos-Horta nearly died of gunshot wounds received in an attack in his Dili compound on Feb. 11, 2008, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao narrowly escaped unharmed from an ambush of his motorcade later that day.

The defendants are mostly former soldiers and police who became rebels and fugitives after factional rivalries within East Timor's security forces erupted into violence in 2006, killing dozens and toppling the then government.

They include an Australian woman, Angelita Pires, the lover of rebel leader Maj. Alfredo Reinado, who was fatally shot by the president's guards during the first attack. They also include Lt. Gastao Salsinha, who replaced Reinado as leader and is accused of commanding the failed attack on Gusmao.

At the end of their seven-month trial in Dili last month, prosecutors asked for sentences of up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiring or attempting to murder the two leaders.

Damien Kingsbury, professor of international studies at Deakin University in Australia, said the trial is the greatest test of East Timor's judiciary since the nation split from Indonesia in 1999 and achieved formal independence in 2002.

Whatever the verdicts, the justice system will be criticized because it is widely perceived as incompetent, but not corrupt, Kingsbury said Tuesday.

"The judiciary is under a great deal of scrutiny at the moment and this is easily the single most important case to have ever gone before it," Kingsbury said.

But he did not agree with predictions that the verdicts could spark violence in the capital.

"I don't think the reaction will go beyond a bit of active debate," Kingsbury said.