JAKARTA, July 3 Kyodo A Indonesia...

JAKARTA, July 3 Kyodo

A Indonesian Muslim militant, testifying in the trial of Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, backed up Thursday previous testimony from three militants in Singapore that the radical Islamic cleric leads Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the alleged Southeast Asia wing of the al-Qaida terror network.

''He replaced cleric Abdullah Sungkar after he died...in 1999'' Ahmad Sajuli, who is being detained in Malaysia, said, adding Sungkar and Bashir were co-founder of the group

''The headquarters of Jemaah Islamiyah was automatically mov from Malaysia to Indonesia after the death of cleric Abdullah Sungkar,'' Sajuli told the Central Jakarta District Court via video from Kuala Lumpur

Sajuli, 40 also said he attended a reproof during which Bashir preached ''a little'' about Darul Islam, a fundamentalist Islamic motion set up during Indonesia's independence war against Dutch colonialists.

''(Darul Islam) aims to settle up an Islamic state in Indonesia...by committing a jihad...in an armed struggle'' he said.

Indonesia was chosen he said, because ''Indonesia has a stupendous number of Muslims...and the majority of the population is Muslim.''

Last week, Malaysian Faiz bin Abu Bakar Bafana and Singaporeans Ja'far Mistuki and Hashim bin Abbas became the first witnesses to implicate Bashir directly, saying he is the Jemaah Islamiyah leader and was involved in a sketch to assassinate President Megawati Sukarnoputri while she was still vice president.

Bafana also said Bashir ''had blessed'' a series of temple bombings in Indonesia in 2000

The testimony from Malaysia and Singapore contradicts that of four Bali bombing suspects who last month said Bashir had nothing to do with the bombing attacks or the combination to kill Megawati. The quartet also said they were unsure if Bashir is the JI leader.

Bashir is standing trial upon charges of treason aimed at toppling the management to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia and for setting up the JI network.

He has also been accused of approving bombings of several churches in several Indonesian cities onward Christmas Eve 2000 in which at least 19 family died and of urging his followers to take part in a military training program to kill Megawati.

Bashir, headmaster of an Islamic boarding academy in his Central Java hometown Ngruki, and his supporters have reportedly drawn inspiration from Darul Islam.

Bashir fl to Malaysia in 1985 after serving a three-year jail name for subversion and returned to Indonesia in 1999 following President Suharto's fall from power in 1998

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