A Muslim man was sentenced to 10 months in jail by a Syariah court for giving his son to a non-Muslim German woman, a report said today.

Mazuri Mamat, 32, pleaded guilty to giving Mu'izzuddin Mazuri, now eight, to Ingrid Angelika Braun, who works in Malaysia, in December 2002, the New Straits Times said.

"Your action of giving away your child to a non-Muslim is wrong in Islam," Syariah court judge Nik Najib Che Hassan was quoted as saying.

"You have gone against your duty as a parent who is supposed to look after his children. What you did has also gone against public sensitivity, especially Muslims."

The Syariah court in Kelantan had earlier ordered that the child be returned to his mother, Juliana Jalil, 26, the newspaper said.

The Syariah court has jurisdiction in civil cases involving Malaysia's Muslims, who make up more than half the population, which also has large Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.