England fan in Portugal jailed for two years

Eleven English football fans and a Russian are being deported from Portugal after riots in the coastal town of Albufeira, and…

Eleven English football fans and a Russian are being deported from Portugal after riots in the coastal town of Albufeira, and one England fan will serve a two-year jail sentence back home.

Gary Norman Mann was given a jail sentence, which will be served in Britain, of two years for riotous behaviour and inciting a riot.

"I wasn't even there, it's a stitch-up," he yelled after sentence was passed. The 12th Briton and a Portuguese detained by police on Tuesday morning were set free.

Thousands of English soccer fans are in Portugal for the three-week Euro 2004 tournament and Albufeira is the centre for English tourists on the Algarve coast.

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The Russian had a broken arm in plaster and all the defendants appeared dazed and grubby after two nights in police cells. One of the Britons had a black eye and cut face, and he told the court he had broken two ribs.

The judge asked each defendant, whose ages ranged from 19 to 46, if they were willing to be deported voluntarily.

He gave them the option of remaining for the outcome of a trial.