Singaporean militant gets 18 years' jail in Indonesia

An Indonesian court sentenced a Singaporean man to 18 years in jail for planning bomb attacks and teaching members of militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) to make bombs, a judge in the South Jakarta court said on Tuesday.

Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin, 35, was among 10 men arrested in South Sumatra last year and charged under an anti-terrorism law with plotting to kill three priests and a Christian school teacher, and to blow up a cafe.

Prosecutors told the court earlier this year that Hasan belonged to JI's Singapore branch, had met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and knew other JI members including Riduan Isamuddin, alias Hambali, and Mas Selamat bin Kastari, a militant who escaped from a Singapore detention centre last year.

Police also found a cache of 20 bombs in several houses during the same raid in and around South Sumatra's provincial capital, Palembang, about 425 km (265 miles) from Jakarta.

"The defendant is legitimately and convincingly guilty of committing terrorism," judge Haswandi told the court.

JI carried out a string of deadly attacks in Indonesia, including bomb attacks on nightclubs in the resort island of Bali in 2002, which killed 202 people.

JAKARTA, April 28 (Reuters)