Second militant gets death for Jakarta embassy blast

JAKARTA - An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced a second Islamic militant to death for involvement in last year's suicide car bomb attack outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

The South Jakarta court found Ahmad Hasan guilty of helping build the bomb and plot the attack with Malaysian fugitive Azahari bin Husin, a senior militant linked to al Qaeda and the alleged mastermind of the bombing that killed 10 Indonesians.

The same court on Tuesday sentenced Rois, also known as Iwan Dharmawan and the leading defendant in custody over the bombing, to death.

The court has jailed three other men for terms of between 42 months and seven years over the car bomb, which tore through the blast-proof fence of the fortified Australian mission.

Prosecutors had said that minutes before the attack, Hasan rode with Azahari and suicide bomber Heri Golun in the explosives-laden van used in the strike.

Azahari and another Malaysian, Noordin M. Top, who is also on the run, are key members of Jemaah Islamiah, a shadowy Southeast Asian network seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda. Jemaah Islamiah has carried out a number of major bombings in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

- REUTERS