JAKARTA - An Indonesian court today sentenced a Malaysian Islamic militant to 12 years in prison for bombing a Jakarta church in 2001 in an attack that killed one person and injured 60 others.

Nur Misuari, alias Nurdin, was guilty of carrying the bomb to the Santa Ana church along with a suspect who is still on the run, said chief judge Zainal Abidin Sangaji.

However the judges said there was no proof he had assembled the bomb used in the blast on July 22, 2001. Members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah (JI) are believed to have been behind the church blast.

JI is also blamed for the Bali blasts which killed 202 people in October 2002, an attack at a Jakarta hotel in August which killed 12 and church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000 which killed 19 people.

The judges said Misuari, 24, had been proven to have shared a house with death-row Bali bomber Imam Samudra and other terror suspects.

Sangaji said Misuari had carried out an "extraordinary crime" which caused an "extraordinary result."

He said five worshippers who testified in the trial had suffered permanent physical injuries such as loss of hearing or loss of limbs.

Appeal

Misuari's lawyers and the prosecutors - who had asked for a 15-year sentence - said they would appeal the ruling. He could have been sentenced to death.

"I'm sorry for my actions," Misuari told AFP after the verdict. But he said he would appeal because "I want to get the most appropriate justice."

Before the trial, Misuari told AFP he had first met Samudra in Jakarta in early 2001.

"I was on my way home to Malaysia from Palu (in Central Sulawesi) when I was told to go to Jakarta. He picked me up at a bus station," Misuari said.

But Misuari claimed that Samudra had never openly discussed any attack plans with him. - AFP