British fan to be jailed for rioting in Portugal

A British soccer fan was sentenced to be jailed in his home country for two years on Wednesday after riots in the Algarve town of Albufeira, as totally twelve involved were being deported from Portugal.

The twelve men consist of eleven Britons and a Russian, while judge Filipe Marques said after an all-day hearing that ten Britons were being deported voluntarily and an 11th, Gary Norman Mann, was sentenced to two years' prison which would be served in Britain.

Another Briton and a Portuguese, who were also accused of clashing with police in the riot, had been detained by police on Tuesday morning but were set free later.

The 12 Britons, the Russian and the Portuguese had been brought to court in handcuffs and denied causing a public disturbance after the riots during the night of Monday/Tuesday when glasses, bottles and chairs were thrown at police and riot police charged the crowd.

The judgments were made after the judge hearing each defendant's account of events.

Thirty four other people, mostly Britons, are expected to appear in court on Thursday after disturbances early on Wednesday in Albufeira.

UEFA, the European soccer governing body, continued to consider the disturbances as unrelated to soccer games.