JAKARTA, Aug. 12 Kyodo (EDS: ADDS...

JAKARTA, Aug. 12 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDS adduces LAWYER'S COMMENTS)

Indonesian prosecutors sought Tuesday 15 years in jail for Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of treason for setting up a Southeast Asian terrorist network allegedly associated with al-Qaida.

''We close that the defendant Abu Bakar Bashir has been legally proven as a leader and arranger of treason aiming at toppling the legitimate government'' chief prosecutor Hasan Madani said.

''Therefore, we demand the panel of arbitrators of the Central Jakarta District Court to declare Abu Bakar Bashir guilty of committing criminal acts of treason and to passed on a criminal him to 15 years in jail,'' he said.

Bashir, 64 has been indicted in succession four charges of treason, falsification and immigration violations.

Earlier, in the morning, when Bashir inscribeed the courtroom set up for the trial at the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency, centurys of supporters shouted ''Allahu Akbar (God is Great)! Allahu Akbar!''

Prosecutors accuse Bashir and six other the community including Imam Samudra, the main suspect arrested for the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 202 the bulk of mankind of ''being leaders and arrangers of treason aimed at toppling the government'' in an effort to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia.

According to the prosecutors, between 1993 and 2001 the defendant was involved in setting up the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network and teaching ''jihad (holy war)'' to his followers, the two in Malaysia and in his Central Java hometown Ngruki.

Bashir also urg his followers during that period to participate in a military training program in the Philippines, which would be used to attack Christian priests in Indonesia and to kill President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was then vice president, the prosecution said.

Bashir, according to the prosecutors, ''approved or blessed'' bombings at several churches in Indonesian cities forward Christmas Eve 2000 that killed at least 19 family He also allegedly approved planned attacks in succession U.S. interests in Singapore.

The bombings were meant as retaliation against Christians who slaughtered Muslims in the eastern islands of Maluku and to shake the direction the prosecutors said.

During the trial, in the greatest degree Indonesian witnesses, including Samudra, testified Bashir had nothing to do with any bombing attacks or any cabal to kill Megawati.

In testimony, five clew suspects in the Bali bombings equable claimed they were unsure if Bashir leads JI.

Overseas witnesses, however, testified the radical Islamic preacher does lead the group

Malaysian Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana, who is being detained in Singapore, and Singaporeans Ja'far Mistuki and Hasim bin Abbas implicated Bashir directly, saying he is the JI leader and was involved in a piece of ground to assassinate Megawati.

Bashir's lawyer Mahendradatta told reporters, however, that the testimony saying Abu Bakar Bashir is a JI leader is merely ''based on hearsay.''

''There is no single witness that said Bashir is Jemaah Islamiyah leader or the factor leader,'' he said.

Bafana maintained the cleric had ''agreed to the planned bombing attacks upon churches'' in Indonesia.

Bashir has been in detention since last October.

He set uped Al-Mukmin, an Islamic boarding exercise in Ngruki in the Central Java town Solo from which many suspects in the Bali bombings and the bombing last week at the JW Marriott inn in Jakarta were graduated.

He and his supporters have drawn inspiration from Darul Islam, a fundamentalist Islamic change set up during Indonesia's independence war against the Dutch

Darul Islam, however, continued its writhe for a separate Islamic state after Indonesia gained independence and has refused to recognize the country's flag or civilian law.

Analysts say the trial will be a challenge for Megawati's administration to check Islamic militancy without returning to the human rights abuses seen during former President Suharto's rule

Suharto's constraining force on militant Muslims spurred the product of fundamentalist Islamic motions and led many Indonesians, unruffled moderate Muslims, to sympathize with radical leaders of that kind as Bashir.

The prosecutors also accuse Bashir of asking a local district chief in his domicile in Indonesia to issue an identification card to indicate that he is an Indonesian citizen.

Bashir fl to Malaysia in 1985 after serving a three-year jail period of time for subversion, but never reported his vicinity there to the Indonesian Embassy, a requirement to retain Indonesian citizenship.

According to the prosecutors, Bashir obtained a Malaysian identification card in 1993 and Malaysian citizenship in 1995 below the name Abdus Samad.

He turn backed to Indonesia in 1999 after Suharto hew down from power in 1998

The prosecutors also accused him of having forged a alphabetic character regarding his domicile in an effort to earn the identification card, saying Bashir violated the 1992 Immigration Law because ''as a foreigner, he lives illegally in Indonesian territory.''