FALINTIL activist Constancio stunned the court at the hearing of his trial last week when he angrily tore up the prosecutor's response to his demurrer which had challenged the indictment read out at the first hearing.

He unfurled a large banner in court with words that could not be seen at the time, and shouted pro-East Timorese slogans. He was heard to shout: "However long it takes, the struggle for East Timor's independence will be victorious" and "We are not terrorists who want to murder innocent people. We are only strugging for our country's independence."

The protest action by the defendant was halted when security forces in court seized his banner and dragged him from the courtroom. Outside the court, Constancio, with his lawyers by his side, continued to shout pro-independence slogans.

In the previous session, the defendant continued to insist that bomb-making in Semarang had been done on the instructions of the supreme commander of FALINTIL, Xanana Gusmao, who is now in prison in Jakarta.

[Until now all eports about the trial have only mentioned Constancio as the defendant. However, a brief report in Jakarta Post on 15 January mentioned Paul George Roderigues Pereira, who was arrested together with him at Dili harbour on 15 September, as being his co-defendant - Tapol.]