Second militant sentenced to death

Second militant sentenced to death

Agencies, Jakarta

The South Jakarta District Court sentenced on Wednesday a second
militant to death for helping plot the deadly bomb attack on the
Australian Embassy here last year.

Achmad Mohammad Hasan joins Iwan Darmawan Mutho, alias Rois,
who was convicted by the same court on Tuesday, on death row.
Three other suspects have been jailed for between 3.5 and seven
years.

The main suspects in the bombing, Azahari bin Husin and
Noordin Moh. Top, who have also been implicated in previous major
bombings in Bali and Jakarta, are still at large. These attacks
in Bali and Jakarta have been blamed by authorities on the Jamaah
Islamiyah regional terrorist network, which is allegedly linked
to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda.

The panel of judges at the South Jakarta District Court found
that Achmad sheltered the attack's alleged masterminds -- Azahari
and Noordin -- and helped assemble the bomb.

Achmad also surveyed the embassy before the attack and gave
Azahari a lift from the scene of the bombing on a motorbike, the
judges said.

"The defendant has shown no remorse at all for his action,"
judge Achmad Sobari said. "Your actions cannot be forgiven
because they were undertaken in the name of Islam but they
actually hurt Islam. They were savage and lacking in all
humanity."

The bombing on Sept. 9, 2004, killed 12 people.

Achmad's lawyers said they were considering appealing the
verdict. They said the sentence was unfair and was handed down
amid a war on terror that had discredited Islam.

The indictment against Achmad, an employee of an agriculture
agency, said he had picked up Azahari on his motorcycle after the
Malaysian parked a bomb-laden truck near the embassy that was
later set off by the suicide bomber.

Before the attack, it said, Achmad exchanged A$10,000
(US$7,700) at a money changer at the request of Noordin. It was
not clear what the money was used for.

Prosecutors also said Achmad trained the suicide bomber, Heri
Golun, alias Igun, to drive a car.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a
statement after the verdict against Achmad was announced that the
death sentence reflected "the abhorrence felt in all countries
for terrorists and those who support them in their terrible
crimes".

Achmad said the verdict was a result of pressure from the
United States, which has publicly supported the struggle against
terrorism in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

"This was engineered (by the U.S.) and I pray that the judges
repent," he told reporters outside the court. "So long as Muslims
are oppressed they will retaliate."