Trial Starts For Militant Accused Of Building Bali Bombs

An Islamic militant accused of making bombs that exploded at Bali nightclubs packed with Australian tourists in 2002, killing 202 people went on trial in Indonesia on Monday.

Umar Patek, 45, was captured in the same Pakistan town where U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

Patek is also accused of mixing chemicals for 13 bombs that detonated in five churches in Jakarta on Christmas Eve, 2000 and killed around 15 people.

Security officials say he belonged to the banned Jemaah Islamiah group linked to al Qaeda.

The Bali bombs were a watershed for Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, forcing the secular state to confront the presence of violent militants on its soil.

It has since been largely successful in containing militant attacks across the large archipelago.

Pakistani authorities caught Patek in Jan. 2011 in the garrison town of Abbottabad where U.S. forces shot dead bin Laden.

Patek was flanked by heavily armed officers as he was escorted into a district court in west Jakarta on Monday wearing a white Muslim cap, tunic and traditional ankle-length trousers.

He sat in silence as prosecutors took turns to read the 29-page indictment in the small courtroom.

A handful of his supporters shouted “Allahu akbar” or God is greatest at the hearing.

He will respond to the charges on Feb 20.

"The defendant met Imam Samudra (a key figure in the Bali bombings who was convicted and executed in 2008) and invited him to kill foreigners and tourists in Bali using bombs," state prosecutor Fri Hartono told a district court in Jakarta.

“Samudra asked the defendant to mix explosives for the bombs and he agreed.”

After the bombings, security forces detained nearly 600 militants, most of whom have been convicted, said security expert Noor Ismail, founder of the Institute for International Peace-Building in Jakarta.

Three main perpetrators of the bombings were convicted and executed by firing squad in 2008.

As a result of the campaign, the threat from militants has diminished, according to analysts.

Patek, also wanted in the U.S., the Philippines and Australia, went to a training camp in Pakistan for Afghan militants in 1991, prosecutors said.

He built the Bali bombs from 700 kg of potassium chlorate, sulphur and aluminium powder and stuffed them in four plastic filing cabinets.

He also helped another man make electronic devices to link the four filing cabinets, prosecutors said.

He later fled, living in the Philippines with groups like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf group, prosecutors said.

During that period, he visited Indonesia to help a group associated with Jemaah Islamiah to set up a paramilitary training camp in Aceh province.