JAKARTA, April 23 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

JAKARTA, April 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH ADJOURNMENT OF TRIAL, ADDING DETAILS)

The trial of Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, accused of treason for setting up a Southeast Asian terrorist network associated with al-Qaida, began Wednesday in Jakarta beneath tight security.

further the trial was adjourned after les than brace hours, during which the prosecution read revealed the indictment. It will reopen nearest Wednesday when Bashir's defense will be heard.

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

Prosecutors accused Bashir along with six other the public including Imam Samudra, the main suspect arrested for the October 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 190 persons of ''being leaders and arrangers of treason aimed at toppling the government'' in an effort to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia.

In a 25-page indictment, chief prosecutor Hasan Madani said that between 1993 and 2001 the defendant was involved in setting up the Jemaah Islamiyah network and teaching ''jihad'' (holy war) to his followers, the couple in Malaysia and in his Central Java hometown of Ngruki.

The defendant 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 prosecutor, ''approved or blessed'' planned bombings that later took place in several churches in a certain number of Indonesian cities on Christmas edge 2000 that killed at least 19 persons while he also allegedly approved planned attacks in succession U.S. interests in Singapore.

''The bombings are aimed to take requite on the actions of Christians who slaughtered Muslims in Ambon (in the eastern islands of Maluku), and to shake the legitimate government'' Madani said.

If convicted forward the treason charge, Bashir could face a life sentence

Bashir has been in detention since October last year.

When Bashir jot downed the courtroom set up for the trial at the Meteorological and Geophysics Agency, centurys of supporters shouted ''Allahu Akbar (God is Great)! Allahu Akbar!''

an packed the courtroom, while others staged a rally in effrontery of the building.

They wore T-shirts with pictures of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and Bashir with the words ''Mujahiddin'' and ''Taliban'' in succession them.

''Who is the Real Terrorist? Ulemas (Muslim clerics) are Arrested, Corrupters are Protected!'' their banners said.

Bashir, a headmaster of an Islamic boarding drill in Ngruki, and his supporters have drawn inspiration from Darul Islam, a fundamentalist Islamic motion set up during Indonesia's independence war against Dutch colonialists.

Darul Islam, however, continued its have a contest for a separate Islamic state after Indonesia gained independence and refused to recognize the country's flag and 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 crushings on militant Muslims spurred the bourgeoning of fundamentalist Islamic manner of movings and led many Indonesians, uniform moderate Muslims to sympathize with as it was leaders as Bashir.

In a next to the first charge, on which he could face up to seven years in jail if convicted, the prosecutors accused Bashir of asking a local district chief in his domicile in Indonesia to issue an identification card to exhibit 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 in subordination to the name of Abdus Samad.

He turn backed to Indonesia in 1999 after Suharto bring to the ground from power in 1998

In the third charge, upon which Bashir could face six years in jail if convicted, the prosecutors accused him of having forged a literal sense regarding his domicile address in an effort to secure the identification card.

The prosecutors said the defendant violated the 1992 Immigration Law because ''as a foreigner, he lives illegally in Indonesian territory.''

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