Alleged terrorist leader denies charges in start of trial

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- The world's most populous Muslim nation tightened its squeeze on a suspected terror group Wednesday, trying its alleged spiritual chief, arresting his hand-picked successor and uncovering a cache of bomb-making materials.

Police announced Wednesday they had arrested 18 Jemaah Islamiyah members, including three suspects wanted in the Oct. 12 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.

Their biggest catch was a Muslim cleric, Abu Rusdan, who police claim had led Jemaah Islamiyah since last year's arrest of its alleged founder Abu Bakar Bashir.

Bashir went on trial Wednesday in Jakarta on charges of ordering a series of deadly bomb attacks against churches in 11 towns on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 19 people.

Waving and smiling to hundreds of supporters, the Muslim cleric defiantly denounced the charges as "lies from America."

Authorities say they have not been able to link Bashir directly to the Bali attack, which killed mostly foreign tourists.

But in Wednesday's indictment, prosecutors accused Bashir of giving "his blessing" to other planned terror strikes against Western interests in Southeast Asia, such as aborted attacks on U.S. interests in Singapore.

Meanwhile, police raids on the islands of Java and Sulawesi netted caches of explosive material, including 88 pounds of fertilizer, and detonators similar to those used in the Bali attacks.

These as well as documents and weapons found elsewhere raised fears that Jemaah Islamiyah had been planning a new wave of terror, possibly ahead of national elections in 2004.

Also arrested was a Malaysian man, Nasir Abbas, who police say was another senior Jemaah Islamiyah chief.

Abbas is accused of heading a unit known as "Mantiki III" that recruited and trained new members on the islands of Sulawesi and Borneo, which is shared among Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Other reports say Mantiki III also operated in the southern Philippines.

Police have now arrested 32 Bali bombings suspects -- many of them identified as Bashir's supporters.

Prosecutors also allege that Bashir's group drafted a death list of Christian priests in Indonesia and at one time plotted the assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

They said Bashir's ultimate aim was to topple Indonesia's secular government and establish a fundamentalist Islamic state that would span much of Southeast Asia. To this end, he founded Jemaah Islamiyah and secretly recruited, trained and deployed militants in several countries.

Bashir, who has been detained in Jakarta since October, maintained Wednesday that he is a religious teacher, not a terrorist mastermind. In the past he has denied that Jemaah Islamiyah existed.

Prosecutors told The Associated Press that Bashir could be imprisoned for life if found guilty. The trial, whose opening day was televised live across the nation, was adjourned until April 30.

Outside the courtroom, a couple hundred supporters -- many of them students from Bashir's Islamic boarding school in the city of Solo -- called for his release.

"He is innocent. He is a holy man," said Rosidin, 16, who goes by one name. "There is no way he could have done these terrorist acts."

As the hearing ended, Bashir's tearful daughter Endang cried out: "I am ashamed that my father has to suffer this humiliation."