Death sentence demanded for Australian Embassy bomber

Indonesian prosecutors today asked for the death sentence for one of the Australian Embassy bombers, saying he was a key planner in the attack that killed 11 people who showed no remorse for his actions.

Abdul Hassan, a 34-year-old worker at a state-owned agriculture firm, also is accused of buying bomb-making material and hiding the attack’s masterminds Azahari bin Husin and Noordin Mohamed Top, who remain on the run.

Hassan has said the victims of the September 2004 blast – all of whom were Indonesian – were killed because of “Allah’s will”. The dead were either passers-by, people queuing up to enter the heavily fortified mission or security guards.

“During the trial, he never expressed regret about what he had done,” Prosecutor Jeffri Huwae told the court.

“His actions caused the death of innocent people and threatened national stability, and there are not any factors which could ease his sentence. He deserves to get the maximum sentence of death.”

Hassan, the second embassy bomber facing a sentence of death, told reporters prosecutors were pressured by unnamed foreign countries to recommend a tough verdict.

His lawyer, Novanda Kurniawan, insisted her client knew nothing of the bomb plot.

“My client was only a messenger,” Kurniawan said. “He knew nothing about the plan when other suspects asked him for help.”

Police have arrested six suspects in the attack, which was blamed on the al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group.

Two have been given sentences of sentenced of three-and-a-half years and four-and-a-half years respectively, while prosecutors have asked for the death sentence and seven years for two others.

Several others suspects in the attack, including Malaysian militants Azahari and Noordin, remain on the run somewhere in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

Indonesia over the years has been struck by a string of terror attacks, including the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreigners. Jemaah Islamiyah, which wants to establish an Islamic state, has been blamed for the attacks.