Dili - A Special Panel for Serious Crimes in East Timor sentenced a former Mahidi militiaman Wednesday to four years in prison for his role in a murder during the violent aftermath of the UN-run ballot on the future of the territory.

Also Wednesday, a major Crimes Against Humanity trial resumed after a three-week recess.

The three-member panel of judges sent militiaman Anigio de Oliviera to prison after he was found guilty of being an accomplice to the murder of Fernando Gomes in Ainaro district on 5 September 1999. It was the first decision handed down by the panel, one of two currently deliberating on Serious Crimes cases being pursued by UNTAET prosecutors.

A separate case – the so-called "Lolotoe trial" – resumed three weeks after a defence-team bid to dismiss the three sitting judges was rejected by Judge Administrator Aderito Tilman.

All three defendants in the case – KMP militia commanders Jose Cardoso Ferreira and Joco Franca da Silva and former Guda village chief Sabino Gouveia Leite – declined Wednesday to give opening statements to the court. Witnesses called by the prosecution will be giving testimony when the trial resumes on 8 April.

The Lolotoe case is the second of 10 priority cases to be tried by the Special Panels. The three defendants have been accused of waging a campaign of deadly terror in Lolotoe sub-district during the months surrounding the 1999 UN Popular Consultation on the future of East Timor.

The two KMP commanders are accused of illegal imprisonment, murder, torture, rape, persecution and inhumane treatment of civilians in Lolotoe sub-district, near the border with West Timor, Indonesia. Gouveia Leite is accused of being an accomplice in the offences allegedly committed by the KMP and members of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI).