Four sentenced for trespassing on Navy range in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A U.S. federal judge on Friday sentenced four Puerto Rican independence activists to time served for trespassing on U.S. Navy land on the island of Vieques.

Judge Salvador Casellas sentenced the four, who entered the area to protest Navy bombing practice, to the 25 days they had already spent in jail and ordered them released. In the past few weeks, dozens of other activists have also been sentenced to time served for trespassing and then freed.

The Navy has used Vieques, an island of 9,400 residents, as a training ground for its Atlantic fleet since the 1940s. Years of resentment over the shelling there turned to anger when a local civilian guard was killed by two errant bombs on the range in April 1999.

Protesters started camping out on the range, preventing the Navy from resuming exercises for a year until federal agents cleared more than 200 people from the grounds during a raid May 4. A week later, the Navy resumed exercises using non-explosive bombs.

The Navy can continue exercises with ''dummy'' bombs for another three years. Islanders will decide in a referendum in coming months whether the Navy can stay longer.