A terminally-ill American nurse whose trial on immigration charges resumed here said she fears the process will drag on for weeks.

Joy Ernestine Sadler has been in custody for more than two months since she was arrested along with British academic Lesley McCulloch for visa violations and now fears she will not be home for Christmas.

Wiping away tears as she stood behind bars at a holding cell in Banda Aceh district court, Sadler told AFP Wednesday that she is terminally ill. "I am very sick and I am very sad because they said it will be a long process till Christmas time," she said. "This is not fair. The judge wants to finish the case immediately but the jaksa [prosecutor] does not."

The pair's Jakarta-based lawyer Johnson Panjaitan said their trials may not finish at least until after the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday which ends December 10.

"I want to see my family. I want to celebrate Christmas with my family," Sadler said. "I don't eat. I feel I am sick. The doctor comes two or three times a week for medicine, special medicine from America they have to bring," she said.

Sadler and McCulloch are being tried in separate courtrooms in the capital of the troubled Aceh province, the scene of a long-running conflict between separatist rebels and government troops.

McCulloch has said the military is angry with her for writing about abuses in various Asian newspapers. She was speaking before the trial resumed with the first witness testimony. It began Monday.

During Monday's court hearing, prosecutor Muhibuddin said Sadler and McCulloch had "taken photographs, gathered data and documents and provided medical treatment" in a village in South Aceh where they were supposed to be on a tourist trip.

Both women have been held since September 11 when security forces stopped them in the south of the province. The women are being detained in a room at Banda Aceh police headquarters. The charge is theoretically punishable by five years in jail.

An estimated 10,000 people have died since the conflict began in energy-rich Aceh province on Sumatra island in 1976. Rights activists put the toll for this year alone at more than 1,200.