Indonesia jails driver over Jakarta hotel bomb

An Indonesian man has been jailed for eight years for his role in two deadly hotel bombings in 2009 and a failed plot to kill the country's president.

Amir Abdillah, 34, was convicted under anti-terror laws of concealing information and harbouring terrorists.

Prosecutors said he was involved with the Islamist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), blamed for a string of attacks in Indonesia.

Abdillah was the third militant to be sentenced over the hotel attack.

Abdillah was found guilty of acting as driver for Noordin Mohammad Top, at one time Indonesia's most wanted militant and who was killed in a police raid last year.

He was also convicted of helping to plan to attacks and of transporting explosives to be used in a failed attack on President Susilo Bambang Yudohoyono.

But he said he was only guilty of the charge of hiding information.

"I just did as I was told. I was told to deliver ingredients for cakes. I didn't know they were actually explosive materials. I was asked to drive a cleric around - I had no idea he was Noordin M Top," he told reporters.

The bombings on the JW Marriott and the Ritz Carlton hotels in July 2009 killed seven people and injured more than 50.

They ended a four-year lull in terror attacks in Indonesia, which had suffered a number of bombings - mainly linked to JI - since 2000.