An Indonesian court today sentenced a second Islamic militant to death for involvement in a suicide bombing last year at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed 10 people and wounded nearly 200 others.
The accused, Achmad Mohamed Hasan, 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 US) and I pray that the judges repent," he told reporters outside the South Jakarta District Court. "So long as Muslims are oppressed they will retaliate."
Yesterday, the same court sentenced to death militant Iwan Darmawan, known as Rois, for helping plan and carry out the attack, which was blamed on the al Qaida linked Jemaah Islamiyah network.
Judges at the court ruled Hasan had sheltered the attack's alleged masterminds - fugitive Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top - and helped assemble the bomb.
Hasan also surveyed the embassy before the attack and gave Azahari a lift from the scene of the bombing on a motorbike, said Judge Sobari.
"Your actions cannot be forgiven because they were undertaken in the name of Islam, but they actually hurt Islam," the judge said. "They were savage and lacking in all humanity."
Lawyers for Hasan said they were considering appealing against the verdict.
Three other people have been sentenced to prison terms of between three-and-a-half and seven years in the blast over the embassy attack. A verdict is pending in the trial of a sixth suspect.
AP